The Tainted Swan
by Words of an Escape
Summary: Two years after Pan's curse is cast, Emma and Henry find themselves living in New York. Emma falls into an abusive and controlling relationship and slowly begins to lose hope. Will Regina break Elphaba's hold and rescue her damsel in distress?
1. Prologue

**Title: **_The Tainted Swan_

**Rating: **_T (may change to M)_

**Pairing:** _Emma Swan/Regina Mills_

**Warnings/Triggers: **_This is actually one of the darkest pieces I've written; theres connotations of rape, domestic abuse, violence and suicide. There will be additional warnings in further chapters for anything else that may come about. _

**Summary:** _Two years after Pan's curse is cast, Emma and Henry find themselves living in New York. Emma falls into an abusive and controlling relationship and slowly begins to lose hope. Will Regina break Elphaba's hold and rescue her damsel in distress? __  
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**Disclaimer: **_Unfortunately, I don't own Once Upon a Time and probably never will. _

**A/N:** _Hello all! This is just a prologue for the story so you all have some sort of idea in your head of who Emma has become when the story actually begins. Hopefully the first proper chapter will be up within the next two days and it will be a lot longer than this, I just thought that if I tried putting too much into it, that it would get boring. I hope you all like this and would love to hear your thoughts on this little prologue!_

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Prologue:-

It had been two years since Pan's curse had hit Storybrooke and Emma and Henry still had no idea who they really were. They had been living false lives for those two entire years and didn't even know it. When the curse hit, Emma drove herself and Henry to New York with the idea that they were starting a fresh in a new city, just because Emma was tired of living in little seaside towns that were unknown to anyone who didn't actually live there. But that wasn't it. No. Emma wanted love. Emma _needed_ love. For some reason, when they began her journey she hoped that it would just be her and Henry, but then something hit her; her heart felt empty. Henry was able to fill it in some aspects, of course, but there was something missing. She needed to find real love.

When the two first arrived in New York, they lived in a hotel for at least a month until Emma had found a secure job doing what she does best so they could afford to actually buy their own apartment in the city. Within a week, Emma was working for a bail bonds company in the centre of the city. After spending her first week being forced to sit behind a desk, Emma begged her employer to let her take up her lead. It had taken two hours for her to find the 32 year old and in all honesty, her office hadn't expected her to return at all. When her boss finally saw her potential after finding all four of her leads in a single week, Emma was given a raise and thus became her first step in saving for an apartment.

As soon as they were settled into their new apartment and Henry was actually enjoying school, he encouraged his mother to start dating. He knew how lonely she was becoming and couldn't help but to push the woman into trying to find herself some happiness; after all, she had spent the majority of his life as a single mother. She had been on a few dates in the past, but they never worked out. That was until her first date in New York.

Every day Emma had made a habit of grabbing a coffee at the coffee shop on her block for her long journey to work. That was where she met Ryan. He was handsome, polite, kind and always made the effort to slip in a quick flirt in their morning conversations as they both waited for their coffees. It had taken him only seven short mornings to pluck up the courage to ask the blonde on a date, and without thinking, Emma instantly said yes. He wasn't the type of person she would usually go for, but he seemed too good to be true. Ryan was definitely someone she could take home to meet Henry.

Their first date panned out perfectly. Ryan flirted with Emma, and Emma flirted right back. He had turned up with a single white rose for the blonde and pulled out her chair for her to sit. He was the perfect gentleman - or so it seemed. The day after their first date, he called her to ask if she would be willing to go on a second date with him in two days. Emma couldn't find it in herself to say no, but the only thing was; she didn't actually want to say no. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to go on dates with Ryan and she wanted more than anything for him to meet Henry.

Within a month after their first date, Ryan had met Henry and the two quickly became good friends, so for the first time in a long time, Emma felt content. Not only did she have a well paid job that she loved, but she also had her son and a man that seemed to be willing to fight for both her and her son. Three months later, Ryan had moved in and Emma finally had some form of family that she had always wanted. That was until Ryan changed.

For the five months that Emma had known Ryan, she believed him to be a real gentleman. He was always polite, he never swore in front of Henry, he always held the door open for her, he would never let her pay for anything when they were out together and he would never fail to buy her flowers at least once a week. But clearly perfection and real gentlemen never actually existed. It all began when Ryan decided to bring up Emma's job. He hated the fact that she was in such a dangerous line of work and couldn't bare to see her get hurt.

"Babe, I think you should quit your job," Ryan said, breaking the silence between them as they snuggled together on the couch to watch a movie after Henry had gone to bed.

"Why the hell would I do that? You know how much I love it." Emma replied. She had never really talked about her work to Ryan, but he knew what she did and why she did it.

"You need to quit, Em. It's not safe." He gave her a concerned stare when she hesitated with her reply. "Emma, on Monday you're going to hand in your notice and you're going to be a stay-at-home mom, okay? My job pays well enough to pay for the three of us, so that's what's going to happen."

"Hold up, since when did you ever have a say in what I do with my career and life?" She pushed herself of Ryan and stared at him. Where did this come from? "I'm not quitting my job. I love it, I'm safe and it doesn't get Henry into any harm. That's all I care about."

"You are going to quit that job whether you like it or not." He hissed, grabbing Emma around the neck, blocking her airways. "Stubborn bitch."

Emma squirmed beneath his grasp in an attempt to gasp for the air that he was depriving her of with his thick hand wrapped tightly around her throat. "Ryan..." She breathed, hoping that he would let her go. But that's when everything went black.

She woke up hours later laying on her couch with her hands tied behind her back. When she realised the situation she was in, the first thing she did was to think about Henry. If Ryan had done this to her, what had he done to Henry? Her frantic mind covered every possibility as she attempted to push herself up from the couch. Every part of her hurt. Her arms hurt, her head hurt and her legs hurt. Until she sat up completely, she hadn't noticed that she was completely nude from the waist down. Her breathing became ragged at the thought and fought away every tear that filled her eyes. She couldn't cry about this now. She needed to make sure Henry was okay.

After tearing her hands from it's bonds behind her back and finding a pair of sweatpants on the pile of clean laundry behind the couch, Emma quickly and quietly made her way to Henry's room. She peered around the door to find him sleeping as peacefully as she had left him. Thankfully Ryan hadn't touched him. Her breath was still ragged as she made her way into the bathroom to clean herself up and to actually think about what Ryan had done to her. There was no doubt in her mind that he had raped her. Why would she have been missing the bottom half of her clothing if he hadn't? For the first time in her life, Emma was, without a doubt, absolutely terrified.

She closed the bathroom door behind herself and fell against it, landing in a heap on the floor. The angry bruises on her arms began to haunt her. She couldn't let Henry see them and she most certainly couldn't let Ryan see her defeated. As the tears burnt her cheeks, Emma started to feel a fire burning up inside her stomach; a fire of pure rage.


	2. Reversed

**A/N:** _Hey guys! I just wanted to say thank you to those who have already reviewed, followed and favourited my story already! It means so much, so thank you. Just a quick heads up for this chapter; it does contain a slight torture scene. This chapter is a short one, I just wanted to give you all an insight to what was happening with everyone else over in the Enchanted Forest. Hopefully chapter two will be up tomorrow and I hope that you're all enjoying it! I would love to hear what you guys think!_

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Chapter One - Roles Reversed:-

When Pan's curse hit two years ago, the entire town of Storybrooke was sent back to their home land — the Enchanted Forest. The entire population of the town had arrived directly outside of Regina's former palace in absolute befuddlement. No one knew why they had returned at this point but no one really cared to ask, since Regina had burst into a fit of hysterical tears when she caught a glimpse of their surroundings. Not only had she lost Henry, she had lost Emma too. _Emma…_ the infuriating little blonde that did nothing but cause trouble and worm her way into the former Queen's heart. Before Regina had sent Emma and Henry over the town line, she confessed her love to the blonde, in hope that it would be returned. And the worst part about all of it was that everything _was_ returned. Emma too confessed her love for Regina, vowing that she would find her once again before getting into her rusty yellow Bug with their son and driving off into the distance. The memory would be burned into Regina's memory for an infinity; even if she did get Emma and Henry back. She needed to find them and never let them go.

"Regina, why are we here?" Snow asked with a patient tone, hoping to draw Regina from whatever upsetting thoughts were going through her mind.

"I don't know, Snow." Regina replied with a venomous tongue and cringing when she heard herself. "I'm sorry. I don't know why we're here, Snow, but I do know that we need to get Emma and Henry back because something bad is about to happen. I can feel it."

Snow nodded in understanding. She knew Regina and Emma had feelings for each other, so Regina's confession that she needed Emma back didn't surprise her; in fact, she had known for a little while. It was blatantly obvious to anyone who watched the pair interact. They may fight and argue more than any two people Snow had ever known, but she knew that behind the venomous words was both love and fear. As much as the thought of her daughter falling in love with the Evil Queen hurt her, she overlooked it as best as she could, knowing that if loving Regina would make Emma happy, then so be it. Allowing Emma to find her happiness was all Snow ever wanted, even if Emma didn't fully see that that was what her dainty mother had been trying to do ever since the curse broke.

"We will find them, Regina," Charming declared, resting a comforting hold on the sobbing brunette's shoulder. "But for now, we have other things to deal with; like find out why on earth we're outside your palace and why we're all dressed like we never left this place."

Regina rolled her eyes at his idiocy before turning to face the incredibly optimistic couple of Snow and Charming. "We're all dressed like we never left because that is part of the curse. For some reason, we all have our memories, which I know for a fact is a glitch. Something went wrong with Pan's curse, so someone on this side had been meddling with him." With her voice dripping with sarcasm, Regina watched the understanding seep into the two idiots' minds before continuing. "If someone has been meddling, then this was part of their plan; they must want all of us together, with our memories in tact and outside my palace, because clearly they're inside. _Idiot_."

"Oh, Regina, how smart of you, my dear." Came a voice behind Regina; a voice she knew all too well.

"Elphie..." Regina whispered before smirking and spinning on her heel. "What a pleasant surprise to see you here, dear."

"You were always so polite, even whilst torturing those poor, unfortunate souls." Elphaba returned her own little smirk before advancing a few steps towards the former queen. "You were correct in your theories, dear. I did meddle with Pan's curse, I did leave you with all of your memories and I brought you all here because I do believe that each and every one of you can help me."

"Why on earth would we help you?" Snow snapped before being pulled back by Charming.

"You're all going to help me, dear Snow White, because I told you so." The green witch gave a sinister grin and waved her hand over the crowd of people standing in front of her, freezing their feet to the spot they were standing. "Oh, and would you look at that? You're all stuck and under my control in my kingdom; what a pity."

"What is it that you want from us?" Archie asked from the middle of the group.

"I do believe that you have all arrived from another realm - a realm without magic, is that correct?" Elphaba's answer was a simple nod from the majority of the group. "Oh good, then you can all tell me everything you know about it, and my dear friend, Regina, you can inform me on how to get to such a land, since you so easily did it in one simple curse. I have business with two people there that I have to deal with. If you all do as your told, you will be released to live a peaceful life in my kingdom. Do we have a deal?"

Neal rolled his eyes at the familiar line before the sudden realisation hit him. "First, you have to tell us who you have the business with, otherwise we're not agreeing with your deal." Regina's lip curled at the corner. Just as stubborn as his father.

"I'm glad you asked, son of Rumplestiltskin. The people I have business with are two people that I do believe you all know; a Miss Emma Swan and a young Henry Mills." The witch revelled in the reaction from the group and saw the look of distraught and horror on the faces of Snow White, Prince Charming and the Evil Queen. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that this Emma Swan is, in fact, the princess of the White Kingdom and the mother of the Evil Queen's son. That is an odd match, if I may say so."

Regina seethed behind her glare and longed to lash out at the woman before her. She now had to do everything in her power to stop Elphaba from getting to the only two people she loved and now, her power was limited. There was no doubt that she would stop her magic, unless it was already taken from her by the curse, so all she could do would be to use the manipulative powers that she had spent the previous thirty years perfecting. What Elphaba didn't know, was that Regina was a lot more resourceful now than she had been the last time she had faced the wicked witch.

Within an instant, the entire group were being ripped from the soil beneath their feet and evaporated under a cloud of green smoke, only to reappear in their own separate cells. Snow and Charming, Ruby and Belle, Hook and Tink, Ashley and Sean, Kathryn and Jim, and any other couples, were lucky enough to be locked in cells together. Regina's cell was the biggest of the lot and happened to be the 'head' of the walk way. She could see everyone, even Elphaba, who was gliding towards her cell with a grin on her face.

"There is a meaning behind all of that space there, dear." Elphaba said as she watched Regina look around. "I'm sure you'll figure it out after you and I have had our little chat."

With a quick flick of her wrist, Regina's cell was opened and she was guided out by two flying monkeys that Elphaba just so happened to allow as her guards. Regina kept her head down as she was led out of the dungeons, knowing that everyone's eyes would be on her. She had only just redeemed herself with these people, and now, without a doubt, they would blame her once again. She couldn't let that happen. She had spent so long trying to find forgiveness and friendships with these people, she couldn't let that die because of an old enemy.

Regina was guided into one of her old interrogation rooms. It was candle lit and smelt of death. It had always been candle lit, but it never smelt of death. As she glanced around the room, trying to take in some of the memories that it held, she noticed the blood stains on the walls and floor around a bubbling and burning cauldron. The sight infuriated her. In all of her years living up to her title as the Evil Queen, never had she left such a mess in a room she took so much pride in keeping presentable. That was the entire point of the room - to lull her victims into a false sense of security.

The memory of her first meeting with Elphaba seeped into her mind. The green witch had managed to transport herself out of Oz and into the Dark Kingdom; into Regina's wrath. Regina had dragged the witch into the very interrogation room and tortured the woman for information that she knew she had. The brunette wanted Galinda gone, and with the well known relationship that the Good Witch had with the very being strapped to a table, Regina could think of nothing better to do. Regina had taken away all of the witch's powers and used them against her. It was too easy. Within moments Elphaba had cracked and spilled every secret about the Good Witch that she had before bursting into tears and babbling about betraying her trust or something or another.

"Ironically, this has become my favourite room in the entire palace. I've grown to love it." Elphaba admitted, shooing away the flying monkeys, leaving herself alone with Regina.

"It's a shame you didn't care for it the way I did." Regina muttered under her breath and Elphaba gripped onto her upper arm and dragging her towards the hard wooden table in the middle of the room. "Just so you know, I'm not as easy to crack as you are, dear."

Regina smirked and willingly sat upon the table, facing the fact that Elphaba could only hurt her because she was, after all, her only way to get to Emma's world and that was never going to happen. The green witch remained silent as she stalked over to the cauldron by the side of the table, feeling intrigued by her sudden power and authority over the most powerful woman in all the lands.

"It feels good, doesn't it? To have the roles reversed." Regina sighed as she laid herself down onto the table, knowing that she was going to be strapped to it any time soon. "You know, I'm rather used to being tortured now; I take pride in the number of times it has actually happened. And to be quite frank, only one interrogation has actually affected me and it was by a man with no magic. It's funny isn't it? We spend our lives fighting things that we believe to hold less power than we have, and it turns out that we were actually the weak ones. We were weak enough to overlook the love we had for the people we cause the most pain to. Eventually, we all find our saviours."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Elphaba said with a slight hitch in her voice. "Clearly that last interrogation messed with your mind, dear."

"Oh, I think you know exactly what I mean. Don't think that I didn't notice that little chain around your neck. It's a piece I would recognise anywhere." Regina scoffed at the other woman's ignorance at something so blatantly obvious. "Your necklace once belonged our dear friend Galinda, did it not? And I am pretty sure that band around your wedding-ring finger is made from the same silver as that damned tiara she insisted on wearing with everything."

"How the hell did you know that?" She bit, spinning around as fast as she could, before flinging herself towards Regina and gripping her tight around the neck, pinning the powerless woman to the table. "Who told you about that?"

"Its... fairly obvious..., dear." Regina coughed out, struggling to breathe but showing no signs of weakness.

Elphaba loosened up and allowed her eyes to fill with tears as she began to strap Regina to the table. Every tug of the leather straps creating Regina's bonds, was another piece of anger that seeped out of her. She remained silent until the former Queen was completely tied down.

"She died." The witch dead-panned, surprising Regina at her sudden confession. "It was Pan. He needed something of hers to cast the curse and she refused to give it to him. He killed her and left me here to rot away."

Regina let out a sickening breath of laughter, making the witch hit her directly in the face. Before the pain could even register with Regina, the witch pulled out a black wand from beneath her cloak and began reciting spells even Regina had never heard of. Then it hit her. A searing pain shot up her spine, causing a painful tingling sensation at the back of her head, making her entire body shake and convulse. When the pain began to die down, Regina allowed her eyes to slowly blink open to find Elphaba waiting with a spell book and a sinister grin on her face at the bottom of the table.

"Elphaba..." Regina gasped before another agonising spell was directed towards her. "Why are you...doing...this?" Regina continued to try, she needed to know what Elphaba wanted with Emma and Henry.

"I want you to tell me how to get to that other realm, dear." Elphaba smiled before casting another curse towards Regina, making the brunette scream and writhe in agony. "It's simple really. If you tell me, I'll stop."

"Why do you want them?" Regina's words were fast, but she knew the witch understood her as she allowed her eyes to drift closed out of exhaustion.

"I want them because they're your happy ending, Gina. You ruined my happy ending, so I'm ruining yours." She declared before shooting another curse at Regina, actually making the woman cry this time.

"I...did...nothing." Regina gasped through her sobs and searing pain.

But then it hit her; complete darkness.


	3. Hurting

**A/N:** _Hello again, to all of you wonderful readers! This is just another quick thank you for all of your follows, reviews and favourites since yesterday! Here's chapter two, so I hope you all like it and I hope that you would be kind enough to leave a few little comments in the reviews... Thanks! xox_

Chapter Two - Hurting:-

It had been a month since Ryan had hit and raped Emma. He had hit her again several times since, but left no obvious bruises, so Henry never saw or asked about them. Henry was living under the illusion that his mother was happy and in love with a guy that he was quickly becoming friends with. Emma, however, hated every waking moment of her life. The only thing that was still keeping her alive was Henry. If she wasn't there, who knows what Ryan could do to him? Every time she saw her 'boyfriend' she felt physically sick. He controlled everything she did, said and wore. He forced her into quitting her job, he locked her in the apartment every day and only allowed her to go outside when she was accompanied by him. She was trapped. Emma would spend every second of her day trying to find a way for her and Henry to leave, but came to no avail. There was no way out.

"Hey mom, I'm home!" Henry would shout the same way he did every afternoon when he finished school. But this time, he wasn't welcomed by his smiling mother and her new boyfriend. No, this time, he found his mother lying on the couch with dry tear tracks down her face. "Why was the door locked? Is everything okay"

"Sorry, kid, I locked it when I showered earlier." She hated lying to him, but she couldn't face the pain of actually admitting what had been happening in her life since she met Ryan. "Everything's fine, I was just watching a really soppy movie, that's all."

"And that's the biggest bunch of crap I've ever heard." Henry muttered as he dropped his bag onto the kitchen counter before crossing the room to embrace his mother. "What's really going on?"

Henry's tight hug caused impact on the bruises that covered her chest, arms and back, making her gasp at the pain that ran through her body. "Ah!" She moaned as the pain of Henry's touch seared through her body even more. There was no way of hiding how hurt she really was, and Henry was a smart boy; there would be no possible way to hide this from him any more, she just didn't want to have to explain everything to him. Before she could stop him, Henry was raising the back of her sweater to inspect what had caused the pain. The thick woollen material had done a good job hiding the purple and green bruises that covered every piece of visible skin on Emma's back

"Oh my gods," He sighed as he lowered her sweater once again as a sudden realisation hit him. "Ryan did this to you, didn't he?"

_Too smart. _Emma was too afraid to actually open her mouth in confirmation, but Henry saw the fear and hurt building up behind her eyes. It was obvious that she had become a shell of her old self; she jumped at every sudden sound, her eyes would flash whenever she heard footsteps and every time Henry tried to comfort her with sensitive touches, she would flinch and back away. For a woman who was always head strong and defiant, it was difficult for Henry to see what his mother had become and what he had overlooked over the past month.

Out of the corner of her eye, Emma noticed Henry's chest rise and fall as if he had just run a marathon. His hands clenched into fists atop of his legs and his face was filled with fury. It was most certainly a look that terrified Emma. The last thing she wanted was for Henry to get hurt, and with the look on his face, there was no doubt in her mind that the boy was going to do everything in his power to defend his mother, even if she protested.

"Henry, just leave it." Emma warned, sounding weaker than she had hoped. "I'm fine, honestly. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"You are not fine, and believe me, I'm not the one that's going to be hurt." Henry replied, sounding a lot older than a thirteen year old. And there was no way a thirteen year old defend his mother from an abusive boyfriend.

Emma grabbed hold of her son's wrist as he stood up from the couch, shooting him a warning glare. "Don't even think about it, kid." Her voice was now stronger and incredibly maternal. "I've already got a few plans on how we can escape, okay? You just have to trust me. He's not going to hurt you, and he's not going to hurt me any more, I promise.

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Time had always travelled differently in the Enchanted Forest, than it had done in Emma's world. When Emma and Snow were sucked through a portal, sending them back to the forest after the curse broke, they were only gone for a couple of days, but to the women trapped in another land, it seemed like an eternity.

When Regina woke from her slumber, she had expected to find herself in her own bed in the mayoral mansion and breathing out the remains of a bad dream, except that wasn't where she woke. She slowly lifted her head off the cold, damp, hard floor and glanced around the space she was in; she was back in her prison cell and under the control of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. From her position on the floor, she could tell that she had been thrown in haphazardly by the Witch's flying monkeys since she couldn't actually remember getting back to the cell after being tortured by several Ozian curses - curses that even she had never heard of.

Every part of her body ached as she tried to lift herself off the ground. She wanted to grab the attention of Snow and Charming, who were in the cell to her right, facing towards Ruby and Belle's cell. To no avail of actually getting herself off the ground, she grabbed a small rock from the floor around her and threw it as hard as she could into her former step-daughter's cell. When the rock tumbled onto the floor, she heard a quick and quiet rustling coming from the pair before they actually appeared at the bars.

"Regina..." Snow sighed with relief. She actually looked terrified for the woman lying on the floor in front of her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"The bitch used magic from Oz and strapped me to my own interrogation table." Regina hissed, grabbing onto one of the bars to hoist herself up. "Has she taken anyone else since I was returned?"

"She took Ruby," Charming sighed, feeling pained by the absence of his friend. "She still hasn't returned, but we haven't heard any screaming like we did when she had you."

"Did everyone hear that?" She whispered, gaining a faint nod from Snow. "We can't tell her anything, Snow. Any knowledge she has means that she's a step closer to Emma and Henry - that something we cannot let happen."

"If we don't tell her a few discrete things, Regina, she's going to kill all of us!" Snow argued as the tears in her eyes began to blur her vision. She had lost Emma once before and lived without the memory of even having a daughter, but this time, she had every single memory of the couple of years she had known her daughter, making her convince herself that there was no possible way that she could pull herself through without having Emma with her once more. She had only just got her back, she couldn't lose her for good this time.

"She's not going to kill us, Snow. She needs us; she needs all of us. Without us, she won't know anything about that land, she won't know how to get there and she most definitely won't know how to find Emma and Henry." It was the single most optimistic thing Regina had ever said, she just hoped she was right.

Charming watched Regina as she winced at the pain of moving, breathing and thinking about Henry and Emma. His curiosity began to get the better of him when he began questioning why on earth she was so determined to save Emma. Clearly his daughter and the Evil Queen loathed each other; why would she want to save the blonde? His personal questions came to a halt when he couldn't stop his mouth from forming one of the questions.

"Why are _you _so determined to get Emma back? You hated each other, and now you want to _save_ her?" His voice was demanding and worried Snow. She was worried that he would force Regina into a confession about her love for Emma and the love their daughter returned to her. If Charming ever learnt their secret, he would most certainly be unhappy about it.

"I don't have to lower myself to you, Charming." Regina seethed, noticing the irony at the fact that she was still sprawled out on the floor and he was standing tall in his own cell. "Why should I tell you why I want to help _save_ your daughter?"

"Oh, I don't know, Regina, maybe because, like you said, she's my daughter!" Charming flared his nostrils in utter fury. He knew Regina was hiding something, but what she was hiding, he didn't know. "I demand you tell us right now, Regina!"

"Charming..." Snow warned, holding his upper arm and rubbing his back in a circular soothing pattern.

As Charming began to back away from the bars, a loud sniffle and the beating of wings filled the air. _Ruby_.

* * *

When Ryan arrived home from work that night, Henry and Emma were laying on the couch together and watching a movie. As soon as Emma had heard the door open, her entire body stiffened, making Henry's heart ache. He hated seeing his mother hurt, and this was just eating him up from the inside. He had promised his mother that he wouldn't breathe a word to Ryan about what he knew, he would merely act as he usually would whenever he was around him; just to ensure that Ryan didn't begin to suspect anything.

"Hey, you two!" Ryan said as he spotted the mother and son on the couch. Henry sat up and offered him a small smile and a wave before laying back down to continue watching the movie. "Hey, kid, I got you something on my way home from work today."

Henry looked at Emma for confirmation to retrieve the gift. She gave a worried nod and sat up so she could watch her son and the man who pretended to love her with cautious eyes. Ryan pulled out a large leather bound book from the bag he had been carrying. It was beautiful. The four words 'Once Upon a Time' were inscribed across the front in gold leaf. At the sight of the book Henry's face lit up like a Christmas tree. He had always been a sucker for books, but this one was the most amazing book he had ever seen.

"Wow! That's awesome!" Henry said excitedly, taking the book from Ryan's hands. "Where did you get it?"

"Some old book store by my office... they seemed pretty anxious to sell it. I'm glad you like it, kiddo." Ryan offered the boy a genuine smile and ruffled his hair. "Why don't you go and read it while I have a little chat with your mom?"

Henry looked reluctant at first, but felt his mother's eyes glaring into the back of his head, so he nodded and left the two alone in the large living space of the apartment. Emma took in a deep breath and waited for Ryan's hand to go straight to her neck. Surprisingly though, it didn't. Instead, he took a seat in the spot Henry had been sat and simply watched the blonde cowering into the corner of the couch.

"The funniest part about all of this, Emma, is how strong you were and how easily I actually broke you," Ryan sighed before taking a handful of Emma's tank top and pulling the blonde towards his face. "It's such a pity - I'm sure you would have put up more of a fight if you were as strong as you thought you were."

Emma could feel a shiver run down her spine as his breath hit her face with every word. His ideas of personal space were non-existent, even more so when it came to Emma. He felt that everything he did, he needed to make the blonde feel intimidated by it. And it worked because without a doubt, Emma was spending ever second of her waking life worrying what he was going to do next. It was only a matter of time that he did something drastic enough to actually kill her.

"You know, I was thinking, since you and I haven't really had much fun together in such a long time that maybe, when Henry goes to bed of course, that we could take this little party to the bedroom?" His voice was more instructive than questionable and Emma knew that even if she said no, he would still end up having his way with her - concious or not.

Sadness filled her eyes and her heart began to question her stupidity. How could she not have noticed from the beginning that their relationship was moving too fast? But seriously, who actually moves in together after less than five months of knowing each other? It was insanity from the beginning and she was the only one to blame. The signs were everywhere, he was just too good at playing the sweet and innocent gentleman figure who was determined to protect her and her son; or so it seemed. Emma had quickly become blinded at the idea of finding her own Prince Charming to actually realise the danger she was putting both herself and Henry in.

She nodded her head in understanding and stood from the couch, shaking Ryan's painful grip off her wrist. "I'll go put Henry to bed." Her voice quivered at the thought of what was about to happen, but she knew that if it was to happen, she would much rather Henry be sleeping through it than be awake, that's for sure.

"Ma, we're in this book." Henry said as Emma appeared around the door frame.

"What are you talking about, kid?" Emma entered the room and closed the door behind herself. "How are we in a fairytale book that Ryan gave you...?"

"I have no idea, but look!" Henry pointed to a drawing of a blonde woman in a red leather jacket and skin tight jeans with her arm around a boy wearing a pea coat identical to Henry's. "Even our names are in here. But the weirdest thing of all is the last drawing; look at it."

Henry turned the final pages to reveal a yellow Bug, identical to Emma's, driving away from a small town that was being swallowed by a huge purple cloud of smoke.

"Are you okay, mom?" Henry asked, noticing that as soon as Emma saw the image she began to cry.

"What?" She hadn't realised she had began crying, let alone why she had began crying in the first place. The sight of the image brought a series of intense feelings that Emma had no idea actually existed inside her being any more. She felt loved, welcomed, sorry and the way her heart began to race; she was in love. "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know why I did that..." Emma wiped the tears from her face before continuing, "Okay, kid, time for bed. No more reading that or you're going to end up having weird dreams."

With a pout, Henry handed his mother the book and snuggled into his bed. "I love you, mom," Henry whispered as Emma kissed his forehead.

"I love you too, Henry," She gave him a genuine and reassuring smile before backing out of the bedroom after placing the book on the chair in the corner of the room.

As she turned around, she found Ryan standing directly in front of her with a sinister grin written all over his face. Just the sight of him made Emma feel physically sick. She began to feel the sudden urge to punch him in the face, knee him in the crotch, grab Henry and run for their lives. But then the more she thought about it, the more she knew that would only end up making Ryan chase after them in anger, putting them in even more danger than they had been before.

"So, time for me to have a little fun, don't you think?"

_Why couldn't Henry's book be real?_


	4. Planning

**A/N: **_Hello there! Just a quick one to day another massive thank you to everyone that has left a review, followed or favourited this story, it means so much, so thank you. Mistakes are all mine, so I apologise if there are any! And a quick heads up, the beginning of this chapter is a dream/flashback of Regina's when Emma and Henry left. I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter three:-

_Pan's curse was approaching fast as Emma and Henry gave their last goodbyes to their family and friends. Snow and Charming, apart from Regina, were the last to bid Emma farewell, knowing that this could be the last time that they would ever see their daughter and grandson. A sad smile graced Snow's face as she wandered towards Emma. She could see the blonde was hurt about having to leave behind the family that she had searched so long to find. _

_"I love you, Emma," Snow whispered as she took Emma's face between her hands, "I am so proud of you."_

_"I love you too, mom." Emma replied, meaning every word as a burning sensation began to fill her eyes as she let her tears stream down her face. Before she could even control her emotions, Charming pulled both Emma and Snow into a rib crushing hug._

_"And I love you, Ems." Charming smiled as he kissed the top of the blonde's head. "I know you'll find us again. You always will." _

_Breaking away from their hug, Emma offered a tear-filled smile and began walking towards her Bug in front of the town line. Henry was already sat in the car and waiting; he couldn't bare to say goodbye to the people he had known for his entire life. _

_"Emma, wait." __Emma abruptly turned around to find Regina walking towards her with an outstretched arm. "There's something I haven't told you." _

_"What now?" Her patience becoming weary as her farewells began to drag out a lot longer than she had hoped._

_Regina slowly stepped forward, taking away almost all of the distance between them until they were both staring into each other's pain soaked eyes. "I know that you're not going to remember this, but I felt like I needed to tell you before you go..." She gulped and bit her bottom lip before continuing. "Emma, for such a long time I thought I hated you, and for a while I actually believed it, and then you saved Henry's life, defended me and then finally forgave me for everything I have ever done. And that's when I realised it; I am in love with you, Emma. Truly, deeply and hopelessly in love with you."_

_Emma's mouth parted for a moment of thought before her tears returned and her throat began to contract around a huge lump that had quickly grown. "I...I...Regina, I am completely and utterly in love with you too." Emma closed her eyes and let out an overdrawn and painful sigh. "I've known since the mining incident and I haven't stopped thinking about you since."_

_"It's funny," Regina gave a sad laugh and let her own tears fall, "the people who come across as the strongest people you've ever met, always turn out to be a coward in the end."_

_Emma returned the same sad smile and took Regina's hand in her own to give it a light squeeze before quickly letting go and turning away from the town for the final time._

* * *

It had been two weeks since Regina was first dragged into the interrogation chamber, and by now, every single person in the cells of Regina's former dungeon had been interrogated or even tortured by Elphaba. Ruby had returned without a single scratch on her physical appearance, but her emotional psyche had been damaged beyond belief. Every night since her interrogation, Ruby woke screaming in cold sweats and kept looking at Belle as if she was nothing but an illusion.

Elpahaba hadn't physically hurt Ruby, instead, she got inside her head and haunted her. She dragged the wolf through an emotional abyss; breaking down every wall and made her become the most vulnerable thing anyone had ever seen. Although the Wicked Witch had held Ruby under her control for no more than three hours, she still managed to have a brutally dangerous impact of the woman's mind.

After every nightmare, Belle soothed Ruby in her arms, to which she was repaid with hysterical screams from the other woman that she wasn't really there. Ruby's mind had been poisoned with the image that she had murdered Belle during one wolf's time in Storybrooke and that the little brunette that shared her cell was actually a hallucination. That was Belle's form of interrogation. Elphaba had removed her from the cell once, but that was simply to inform her that their conversation was to be the only one they were to have. In the minds of everyone around her, Belle's interrogation was the worst of the lot. Whenever Ruby would wake in fits of panic, Snow and Charming would be the first to wake up and run towards the bars of their own cell as a form of comfort to Belle.

The blood curdling screams that came from the cell each night made Regina sick to her stomach, and every night she would put herself in Belle's position and let her imagination replace Ruby with Emma. The thought of it would constantly make her feel as though someone was tearing her heart out of her chest and crushing it between their fingers. There were no words of comfort that could suffice the emotions that were running through everyone in the cells of the Dark Kingdom's dungeons.

"Ah, if it isn't the Evil Queen herself," Elphaba hissed as she approached Regina's cell. "I see you've regained some of your strength and regality, my dear."

"Indeed," Regina scoffed, pushing herself up from the floor to be at eye level with the witch. "And what can I do for you, Miss Thropp?"

"Such formality for someone so... _weak._" Elphaba flicked her wrist towards the bars of the cells and opened the gate. "You're actually going to help me today, Regina." She turned to face the two flying monkeys behind her and gave her strict instructions. "Take her to the room, strap her into the chair and leave her for me."

The flying monkeys did as they were told by roughly grabbing Regina under her arms and dragged her out of her cell and towards the interrogation room.

"Oh, my dear, Snow," The green witch sighed, placing her hand through the bar's of Snow and Charming's cell to stroke the side of dainty brunette's cheek. "You should be grateful of all of this; especially after what she did to you. After all, I will be taking away ever scrap of her happiness."

"Her happiness includes my daughter and my grandson, Elphaba," Snow spat as if every word on her tongue was seeping with poison. "The only gratitude I would ever give you would be if you brought my daughter and her son here safely and set them free."

"Why on earth would I do that?" She chuckled, squeezing Snow's face in her hand. "Pretty little Snow White, you really are as naive and people say you are. It would be such a shame to destroy such a pretty face, and I'm sure that your daughter would be completely devastated if she found that everyone she loved was dead, don't you think? Maybe she would even do my job for me!"

Snow's eyes widened as Elphaba grinned, released her face and stalked down the walk way between the cells. Regina was too powerful and far too strong willed to let Elphaba get to Emma and Henry, she wouldn't find them, would she?

"Snow, why does Regina's happiness include Emma too?" Charming asked with a hushed tone, expecting his wife to tell him immediately. "Snow...?"

"They're in love with each other." Snow dead panned and winced at the thought of her husband instantly getting angry.

"What?!" He barked, throwing his hands above his head. "How can our daughter, the saviour, be in love with the Evil Queen?! You can't be okay with this, Snow... What about Neal? What about Hook?"

"No, Charming," Snow sighed with a gesture for her husband to sit with her in the floor. "I'm not happy about it, but I am okay with it. If Emma and Regina are in love, then who are we to judge? We know Regina all too well by now, and you and I know for a fact that whenever Regina loves someone or something she will protect it with all of her might. When Emma left, I heard the both of them confess their love for each other, Charming, and it was so honest and truthful. We're just going to have to trust that Regina will protect our family."

*#*

When Elphaba's little minion monkeys had strapped Regina into the newly placed chair in the interrogation room, she was left alone with her thoughts for a while. Her mind quickly drifted towards Emma and Henry's new lives, it had to have been at least a year and a half in Emma's time since she had actually seen them. The thought of not seeing Emma and Henry for an entire year made her heart ache even more than it already had been. Two weeks had been long enough, let alone a year. She dread to think that Emma had found someone and fallen in love without even thinking, no - remembering the fact that she had just confessed her love to the Evil Queen.

As her thoughts began to twist into utter emptiness, Regina's silence was broken my the sudden arrival of Elphaba.

"Feeling rather reminiscent, are we?" She entered the room and slammed the door behind her, making Regina flinch. "And nervous too I see. Oh, dear, you needn't be today because I've decided that you're going to tell me what I need to know right away."

Regina scoffed and rolled her eyes, "You've been spending too much time with Snow and Charming - you've become optimistic. What did you want, Elphie?"

"I want to know how to get to Storybrooke."

"There's nothing left of it. The curse destroyed it; the only way to get back to _Storybrooke_ would be to break the curse," Regina slumped in her chair knowing that Elphaba was definitely not going to be taking no for an answer. "So, what you want is simply impossible to do it alone."

"So you think that you can break Pan's curse, even after you couldn't stop it?" Elphaba let out a loud chuckle and used her magic to tighten Regina's throat. "Tell me exactly how to break the curse."

"A curse..," Regina gasped through the pain. "Rumple...taught...Only...Emma and...I can..." When the former Queen's words left her lips, Elphaba let go of her hold on Regina's neck and nodded for her to continue. Regina took a deep breath to fill her lungs and began again, "Before Rumple died, he taught Emma and I how to break the curse; only we can break it and we have to do it together."

"Teach me."

"I can't, the curse was designed for Emma and I. We've got equal levels of good and evil inside of us. I'm mainly evil, she's mainly good." As much as it was a lie, Regina begged herself to actually believe it. She wanted to break the curse with Emma. The last time Emma broke a curse, it was alone and on accident. This time, however, Regina wanted Emma to break it willingly and with her.

"Is there any way to get to this land without magic?" Elphaba looked concerned as she stared into Regina's eyes to find even an ounce of panic being hidden behind them.

"There are a few ways that we can get back, but they're dangerous and unpredictable." This was the truth. Regina did know how to get back; after spending two weeks locked in a cell, she had time to actually think and plan and an escape for all of the people she had slowly began to appreciate.

"_We_?" The green witch seethed.

"Elphaba, realm and world jumping is different here than what it's like in Oz." She let out a sigh and fidgeted under her bonds, "You can't just wish to be somewhere else and click your heels; you actually need something to make a portal like a bean, or a realm jumper's hat or something. It's going to be difficult and it'll take a while, but I think together we can do it."

"_Together_? Your majesty, my intentions were to destroy your happiness, not for you to help me destroy your happiness." This time, it wasn't her magic that choked Regina. She threw her hand around the brunette's long slender neck and squeezed. She squeezed as tight as her hand could physically cope with before she heard Regina's broken gasps for breath before she let go.

Elphaba stood back and watched Regina's head loll around on her shoulders. The former queen was close to falling unconscious, but her thoughts of Emma and Henry forced her to remain strong and resist the urge to blackout. Confusion and doubt crossed through Elphaba's facial expressions. She wanted nothing more than to get to Emma and Henry, but if Regina accompanied her, would she fight and refuse to let her anywhere near them? But if Regina did accompany her and oblige to her wishes, could she kill Emma and Henry in front of the woman's eyes? The possibilities were endless on either side of the coin, Elphaba just needed to take a leap of faith.

"Fine." Elphaba smirked and raised Regina's face with her index finger. "You're going to show me where your son and your love are and you're going to watch them slip away into an abyss of death."

Regina let her head fall in front of her, allowing herself the privicy to school her emotions from grinning at Elphaba's foolish mistake. She was getting them back.

"Tonight you will return to your cell and tomorrow you will be removed and we shall begin our preparations to travel to this land without magic." Elphaba announced, feeling rather proud that she was going to break the Evil Queen.

Regina gave a limp nod before realising that the Witch's flying monkeys had returned and were ready to take her back to her cell.

"Oh, and one last thing, Regina, dear," Elphaba said in a mocking tone and flashed a false smile. "Say goodbye to your precious friends because after this is done, you won't be seeing them ever again."

_'You wanna bet?'_

When Regina was returned to her cell, Snow and Charming were already waiting at their bars. They watched in silence as she was dropped onto the floor and automatically locked in the large space. She now understood why the Witch had given her such a large cell; it was a reminder that she was going to take everyone she loved and leave her all alone. The thought of living much longer without Henry was incredibly painful. But then she began to think about not actually having the ability to express her love with Emma, and that broke her further.

Snow watched Regina in utter sympathy as the woman lay in a heap on the ground and battling her inner emotions. She continued to watch until she saw a single tear begin to trail down the side of her former step-mother's face.

"Regina, what happened?" Snow's soothing tone actually had the ability to comfort Regina for the first time.

"We're going back." She said after she wiped the tear from her cheek. "I'm helping her get back to the other world."

"What?!" Charming bellowed and threw himself towards the bars. "Regina, you're just going to be helping her kill Emma and Henry!"

"No," Regina's voice was soft and calm, reassuring to Snow that this was her plan. "I don't know why, but I have a gut instinct that Emma and Henry are in New York. I already have a plan on how to dispose of Elphaba and save Emma and Henry, but I need your help."

Snow frantically nodded and Charming slowly began to calm down. Regina couldn't blame him for being so irate; after all, his daughter and his grandson were alone in another world with only the Evil Queen to save them. The more she thought about it, the more she began to pity him. If the roles were reversed between them, she most definitely wouldn't have trusted herself. She couldn't promise them that Emma and Henry would be safe. Hell, she couldn't even promise that they were safe right now. For all she knew, they could be in a dangerous situation. _No_. She couldn't think like that. In fact, she refused to think like that.

"We're going to need help from Blue, too. Elphaba was stupid enough not to take away all of her magic, so when she returns my magic tomorrow, I can tap into Blue's to restore it." Regina's voice had turned into a whisper as she leaned closer to Snow and Charming's cell. "So, here's what I need you to do..."


	5. Portal

_Chapter four:-_

Soon after Regina had told Snow and Charming of her plan, she fell onto her back in utter exhaustion. Her entire body ached and throbbed and her throat remained sore after almost being strangled into an unconscious state. Fortunately, the Green Witch's strength left no mark around her slender neck, which Regina was utterly grateful for. If a mark had been left, goodness only knows how Emma would have reacted if the former queen burst into her new home with an angry bruise around her neck. The woman had enough trust issues, she couldn't have the thought of abuse thrust upon her too.

The more Regina thought about Emma, the less she wanted to sleep. All she truly wanted was to find Emma, wrap her arms tightly around the blonde and confess how she was so madly in love with her. Of course, Emma would never remember their final conversation, but Regina was determined to make her remember. She, of all people, knew all too well that love is a weakness, but this time, this love she had for Emma, it wasn't weakness. No, it was anything but weakness. It was strength and so much more. She had spent so long thinking that she had merely fallen in love with the blonde because she gave her Henry, but now, after all the waiting and spending endless hours locked in a cell, Regina had slowly began to realise that she had fallen for Emma for so many different reasons.

Not only did the blonde refuse to feel intimidated by the former queen, she even fought against the brunette with everything she could give. She would never fail to stand her corner and defend everything she believed in. And without a doubt, she would always take Regina up on any offer of a petty argument over nothing. Regina had quickly called in love with Emma's feistiness and the fire that grew in the blonde whenever she felt passionate about something. During Regina's entire time as queen, never had she been confronted by someone who wasn't afraid of her in anyway. She had never met anyone with enough courage to defend themselves and believe that their status was on par with her own. That was until Emma came along.

That was Regina's weakness; Emma Swan. Not only was Emma Swan her saviour, she was also her weakness. The blonde made her strong, powerful and slightly optimistic, but whenever she was with her, every time her vulnerability would seep through her strong demeanour and her walls would crumble. Not that Emma knew, of course, how could she? She never truly knew Regina. But something that Emma did know, was that she had fallen in love with Regina, in the same way that the brunette had fallen in love with her. Without Emma by her side, Regina was strong, focused and determined to get the blonde back. She could only imagine how she would react if the two of them could work together; side-by-side for forever and a day.

The sound of beating wings echoed throughout the dungeons, waking Regina instantly. The sound filled her with both excitement and anxiety. She was thrilled that she was going to be returning to Emma's world, but she was terrified of how she would react when neither Emma nor Henry would fail to recognise who she was. Then the thought of time crossed her mind; how long had it been for them? The thought of missing at least a month of Henry's youth killed Regina, let alone how long it had really been in their world. Had Henry changed? How much has he grown? Has Emma changed?

"Hello, Your Majesty," Elphaba cackled as she appeared in a whirl of green smoke in front of Regina's cell, dragging the former queen out of her trail of thought. "Get up. We have work to do."

Regina pushed herself off the floor with a melodramatic eye roll and waited for her cell to open before actually opening her mouth to say something. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Snow give a discrete nod. This was it. Operation Wicked is a go.

"Elphaba, I'm going to need my magic back to even consider leaving this place," Regina said, hoping that the woman would fail to see through her facade. "Rumplestiltskin took my magic away a little while ago; when I had it back it took far too long for me to adapt to it again."

"Fine." The witch sighed, waving her hand over the brunette standing before her. She clouded the former queen in a cloud of purple smoke, engulfing the woman into an abyss of powerful magic.

When Regina reappeared, her veins were once again filled with the strength and the power of the dark magic. The comforting feeling was barely as reassuring as she hoped it would be, but she knew that she was now the strongest, even if she didn't have much control over her magic, but she could still defend herself. The only thing that was left to do before actually leaving the Enchanted Forest was to tap into the Blue Fairy's magic and restore it to all of its might. It would be difficult, no doubt, but it was the only way she could help rescue her former enemies and newfound friends.

"Thank you," Regina gave a genuine smile as she stepped out of her cell. "Shall we?"

Elphaba turned on her heel and began stalking passed the cells, leaving enough distance between herself and Regina for the brunette to actually cast her counter curse without getting caught. Regina gave a quick nod towards the Charmings on her right before falling behind Elphaba and reciting the spell in her head. It was the only one she knew that would mask any new magic and would hide any sort of magical exchange, but it was difficult; if it backfired, both Regina and the Blue Fairy would lose their magical abilities altogether and thus, forcing them into a caged life for the remainder of their days. Should it actually work, it would be draining for Regina, but there was nothing else she could do. At least, she didn't think there was anything else she could do.

Just before Blue's cell came up on her right, Regina began whispering and casting her spell. Unlike the last time she regained magic, her spell worked instantly, forcing a tugging feeling throughout her body. Her legs began to shake at the sudden loss of the powerful magic, but Elphaba still remained completely oblivious to the convulsing woman stumbling behind her. By the time the exchange was completed, Regina was standing directly outside the Blue Fairy's cell. She gave the woman a light nod, as she had done with Snow and Charming, as an indication of what was to happen. Blue returned a grateful smile and slumped back into the blackness of her cell. They were ready.

Elphaba led Regina out of the dungeons in complete silence. As they arrived in the foyer of the palace, Regina couldn't help but feel quite thankful that her capturer had actually kept the majority of her old home in ways in which it was left. A few minor things had been changed, but it was still obvious who the palace actually belonged to. The millions of mirrors remained on the walls and, of course, the elegance and regality of the palace's visual image remained. Although, she could never refer to the palace as her home again. No where would ever be home unless it was with Henry. Hell, she didn't want to call anywhere home unless Emma was with her.

"What are we doing?" Regina questioned after their long and lengthy walk came to a halt. Her curiosity had soon taken over when Elphaba refused to say a word throughout their trip from the dungeons.

"I was hoping you would tell me, dear," Elphaba replied with a long sigh, "I do believe that you said that you could get us to _their_ world. Its time for you to prove your worth. Is your magic safe now?"

Regina gave a light nod and held out her hands, creating a large fireball in one hand before quickly distinguishing it with the other. She knew her magic was under control, but Regina knew that Elphaba had just as many trust issues as herself and Emma.

"Its fine. Did you get the hat I asked one of your monkeys for?" The former queen placed her hands on her hips, feeling a sudden authority now that she was in the comfort of her own palace with a very vulnerable witch. Elphaba handed over a large top hat that she had hidden under her cape. "This necklace," Regina said as she pulled out a long silver chain from one of the ruffles in her dress, "it belonged to Emma. When I drop it into the hat, the hat will form a portal and send us directly to Emma and Henry. Well, give or take a few metres."

"And where on earth did you get this necklace?" The green witch asked, noticing the oddity in front of her. "It's hideous."

"I happen to think it's beautiful," A sad smile crossed Regina's lips as she thought about the blonde wearing the necklace with the swan pendant, "Neal gave it to her. She loved it a lot, but when she and Neal met after a long separation, she gave the necklace back to him; to which it was then given to me moments before Pan's curse hit. I was lucky to keep it."

The witch gave a light nod in understanding and gestured towards the hat, instigating Regina's hand to putting the necklace inside. The thought of seeing Emma again did nothing more than excite her, but then it dawned on her that by putting the necklace in the hat, she would no longer have anything of Emma's; and that saddened her to no end. Reluctantly, she slowly dropped the chain to the bottom and placed the hat on the floor between herself and Elphaba.

"Stand back." Regina said with a flick of her hand, "It could suck you in should it backfire."

A bright purple light shone from the hat as it began to spin rapidly and created a powerful wind throughout the foyer. Regina's anxiety began to build; they had planned everything. She was going to leave the dark palace with Elphaba, Blue was going to place the flying monkeys under a twenty-four hour sleeping curse, release all that had been imprisoned and open a portal to transport everyone back to Storybrooke's outskirts. If they left a moment too early, they would instantly be killed by the storm that would bring the town. If they were just a moment too late, they would never get back inside. They needed to arrive in Maine with enough time to escape the storm and still be able to survive during their wait.

As the wind began to howl and echo around the entire palace, Regina knew it was time. Blue would have heard the wind as it whistled through the cracks in the walls and would be ready to act. Now all she had to do was jump through the portal and destroy Elphaba before she could get to Emma and Henry. It would be tough, no doubt, but her son and her love needed her to save them from whatever fate the cruel world had thrust upon them.

"On the count of three, we jump, okay?" Regina yelled over the wind and the loud noises coming from the hat. "One. Two. _Three_!"

As the last number left her lips, Regina jumped straight into the portal with Elphaba following instantly behind. The two were thrown around violently in a tornado of purple magic. As they were stretched, dragged, hit and colliding, Regina couldn't help but question her plan; what if she killed Elphaba too early or in plain sight? No doubt she would be arrested and never let out again, but she needed to find a way to save her family and she had to destroy the witch if she was to have even a glimpse of a happy ending.

When their journey came to an abrupt halt, the queen and the witch were thrown violently onto the concrete floor of a dingy alleyway.

"Where are we?" Elphaba barked and glanced around her with a terrified expression written all over her face.

_'That's why you're wicked, dear. You have wicked thoughts and intentions, but you're not strong enough to actually act upon them.'_ Regina thought to herself with a little scoff.

"Just as I suspected," She sighed, dusting off the short black skirt she had been provided with somewhere along the journey. "We're in New York."

* * *

**A/N: hello again! I know this was a short chapter, but chapter five will be up tonight or tomorrow and chapter six will be up some time before Monday, mainly because these next two chapters are really juicy and rather long (longer than previous chapters anyway!). So thanks for reading, don't forget to review and I shall see you soon!**


	6. Regina

**A/N: Hello all! So remember when I said you were going to get two chapters this weekend…? Let's pretend I never said it because my life clearly had it's own personal plans for this weekend. But hey, at least you get one though, right? Eh… Anyway, I just wanted to say a massive thank you to the guests that have been reviewing this story from the beginning, thank you guys so much and thank you for the support! You make me want to write more because of your enthusiasm. And also another big thank you to everyone else that has reviewed/followed/favourited this story so far, it means so much and I wanted you all to know how grateful I am! I hope you enjoy this chapter; it didn't turn out the way I hoped it would, but then again, does anything ever turn out the way we hoped it would?**

* * *

_Chapter five:-_

Emma had spent all night tossing and turning with incredibly vivid dreams of moments with a woman of who's name she couldn't place. All of the faces in the dreams were faces she recognised, but she was never able to place their names or remember where she had met them. Her last dream saw her saying goodbye to the same woman and confessing her love to her after saying goodbye to a couple that she felt like she adored. The dream caused her to violently sob and squirm in bed, dangerously waking Ryan from his slumber.

"Jesus, Emma!" He barked and gave Emma's limp body a strong shake to wake her. "You've been crying a woman's name all night and now you're going to wake me at god-knows what time it is, in fits of sobs. Seriously, what is the matter with you?"

"I'm sorry," She drooped her head and rubbed her eyes before Ryan's words had sunk in. "Wait, did you say that I was crying a woman's name? What was it?"

"Regina or something," He pulled a face and pushed Emma out of his grip. "Should I be worried about this woman?"

"What? No!" Regina… the name was familiar, but didn't scream anything obvious. She did know, however, that the brunette she saw in her dreams was the one she had been calling out for. "I don't even know who it is, I swear."

Ryan let out a huff and lay down on the bed once again. "Just go back to sleep and shut up, Emma."

Emma complied and lay her head on her pillow once again. The dreams refused to fade from her memories as she kept getting glimpses of them in her mind. The beautiful brunette would appear with a bashful smile on her face; it was a smile that made Emma's heart ache. How could a woman she had never even met have such an effect on her? Unless she had met the woman somewhere along her travels… But she would remember, wouldn't she?

In an attempt to push all of her thoughts of the brunette aside, Emma set her mind back to when she and Henry had first arrived in New York to begin their 'new lives'. Just the thought of their naïvety made Emma scoff. How could they have been so stupid? How could Emma have let her walls fall down so fast and actually allow herself to fall for a guy that would beat and rape her on a regular basis? This was one of the single most important rules she had made before she had Henry; trust no-one. Why had this sudden change been any different?

The more she questioned her own stupidity, the more she realised that there was nothing she could do to change her life and her fate. She needed a saviour. Little did she know that she already had one on the way.

* * *

_"We're in New York."_

"New York? I have no idea what that means." Elphaba said, as she pulled herself off the ground and inspected the black pantsuit that her transportation had so kindly given her. "What on earth am I wearing? This is ghastly."

Regina let out a scoff at the witch's attire. As often as she had worn similar clothing, the clichéd office outfit did nothing to flatter the green woman. Regina, however, was glad to be back in her overly unbuttoned white blouse and skin tight black pencil skirt. The skirt hugged every part of Regina that she had grown to love, and the low buttons on the blouse were definitely something she had learnt to use as an advantage.

"New York is where Emma and Henry are, so obviously they're around here somewhere." Regina glanced around once again, noticing that the building to her right was a huge apartment building and the one on her left just so happened to be an office building. "And I have a hunch, I just hope I'm not wrong."

"Ha. I don't think so, Regina," The green witch said, grabbing Regina's arm tightly, "You brought us here so I could find Emma and Henry and that's what I'm going to do. I don't trust that you would actually lead me to them."

"Okay then, be my guest." Regina smirked. This was going to be easier than her initial plan. "You lead and I'll follow."

Elphaba nodded and pulled Regina out of the alleyway by her arm. Clearly she had seen Regina let out a small smile when she noticed the apartment building because that's where she was dragging the queen.

"We can't go barging in now!" Regina hissed as Elphaba pulled hard on her arm. "It's got to be around 3am; if we burst in through the door right now, Emma will either shoot us or call the police. And I highly doubt it will be the latter, dear."

"Then what do you propose we do?" With a roll of her eyes, Elphaba pushed Regina back into the alleyway so they were out of sight.

"We wait." Regina deadpanned, magicking herself a cushion on the floor to sit on. Through all the fighting, regality had to remain, right?

Elphaba rolled her eyes at Regina's calm demeanour. Little did she know that behind Regina's stone expression, the woman was bursting with anxiety. She wanted to go against everything she had told Elphaba and dive through Emma's apartment door to rescue her love and their son. But then the consequences played on her mind. What if Emma had found someone else? What if she was happy and didn't want to leave? Would Emma be willing to let a mysterious brunette kiss her in order to break a curse she knew nothing about? The frustrating questions boggled Regina. The last thing she wanted to do was to break down in panic at a time like this. She had other things to do before she could even consider being as idiotic.

By the time the sun rose, Elphaba was lying on the floor in front of Regina and lightly snoring. The former queen, however, had been too anxious to allow her body to fall asleep. Instead, she spent her time thinking about how she was going to dispose of the witch. She could have killed her during her slumber, but staying true to her past, Regina let the woman sleep and waited for the perfect moment.

Then it dawned on her. What would Emma and Henry say if they learnt that Regina had killed again? The blonde and their son would always get mad whenever Regina even considered ripping someone's heart out, so maybe killing was out of her options. She glanced over to the witch on the floor once again and chuckled to herself.

'_This is too easy.'_

* * *

Without realising, Emma had let herself fall asleep again. She woke abruptly when she caught the look of the familiar brunette making an appearance in her dream once more. She couldn't let Ryan know something was wrong. He would hit her even harder when she was upset or feeling a little unlike herself, so having him hit her even more was the last thing she wanted.

Emma slid out of the bed as quietly as she could and wandered toward the bathroom that was connected to their bedroom. Taking a deep sigh, she let herself look in the mirror. That was one thing she had avoided doing for a few days. She hated seeing the angry bruises that covered her face, neck and arms. But now, she just wanted to see the mess Ryan had made on her once perfect skin. The right side of her face was practically purple and drooping. The left side, on the other hand, looked like someone else's face. Her eye had almost sunk into the socket, the skin around it was black from her lack of sleep and the ever present rose colour of her cheeks had faded, leaving her looking pale and sick.

With a long sigh, Emma leaned over the small porcelain sink and splashed several handfuls of cold water towards her face. The icy bite the water had left was refreshing and enough to take her thoughts away from horrific mess left on her face.

Realising that the sun had barely risen and that Ryan wouldn't be considering waking up any time soon, Emma dragged her saw and painful body into the small living area to allow herself to fall onto the long couch in front of the tv. She lay in complete silence for a while with an empty mind as she stared up to the ceiling, then she let her curiosity take over. Curiosity had always been one of Emma's downfalls, so why should it matter so much now?

This woman, this Regina, obviously Emma knew her from somewhere, somehow, but all of those facts began to seem irrelevant when she realised that the brunette had only recently began appearing in her dreams. _When did they begin? _And then it hit her; Emma had begun dreaming of the brunette the night Ryan brought Henry's book home. But that could just be merely a coincident, couldn't it? Either way, the brunette had turned up the same time the book had, and if Emma had remembered correctly, the brunette had muttered the name of the same town in Henry's book.

Thousands of theories crossed Emma's mind, making her consider that the woman who had been popping into her dreams on a regular basis was actually a character in Henry's book and didn't actually exist at all. She also considered that the brunette was real and was trying to figure out a way to save Emma through the power of dreams. However, the latter was soon cleared from her head when she thought about how ridiculous it actually sounded.

Relishing in the time she had alone, Emma hadn't realised that she had been lying on the living area couch for over two hours thinking about the mysterious brunette in her dreams. Her time alone was soon cut short when Henry trudged into the large room in his pyjamas as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Hey, Ma," He grumbled as he sat himself at the breakfast bar. Clearly he hadn't had much sleep last night either. "You're up early, aren't you?"

"I didn't get much sleep last night, kid," Emma admitted as she joined her son on one of the tall bar stools. "And obviously, you didn't either. Whats on your mind?"

"I don't know." With a long exhausted sigh, Henry dropped his head on the bar and let his arms cocoon around it. "I've been having these weird dreams about some woman over the past couple of weeks…"

Henry trailed off, leaving Emma intrigued about her son's dreams and whether they were similar to her own.

"Do you know who she was or what was happening in the dream?" She tried to sound concerned, but realised her voice sounded a lot more desperate than she had hoped.

"I don't know who she was, but I remember calling her 'mom' for some reason…" He lifted his head from his arms and looked at his blonde mother with a confused and apologetic look on his face. "She looks a lot like the Evil Queen in my book, but she couldn't be evil; she was always so nice to me in my dreams."

"Henry, could you go get your book? I want you to show me who you think this woman looks like." She did want to see who Henry was seeing, but she also hoped that he was seeing the same woman.

As Henry got up to retrieve his book, the boy's words finally sunk in. He had called the woman in his dreams 'mom'. As much as she didn't want it to hurt her, it really did. She knew she hadn't been a good mother over the past two years, she just never thought that Henry would be dreaming about another woman caring for him like her own. Of course, Henry hadn't exactly been living in the safest environment, but he had never physically faced the same side of the dangers Emma was facing. At least, she hoped not.

"This is the woman," Henry said as he flipped through a few pages of the book when he crossed over to the breakfast bar once more. He pointed at a picture of a woman with long dark hair. "This is where she's the Evil Queen, then when she arrives in our world, she becomes normal and less crazy. She becomes mayor of some town called Storybrooke."

So she had been right. The woman she was dreaming about was the same as Henry and she was nothing but a fictional character in a fairytale book. Emma let out a sigh and rolled her eyes at her own stupidity, praying that Henry didn't think the eye roll was towards him.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked when his mother dropped her own head for it to loll around on her shoulders.

"That I'm a complete and utter idiot." Henry raised his eyebrows at his mothers comment in a way to ask her to continue. "I've been having dreams about the same woman and she mentions Storybrooke a couple of times and I thought it was someone I knew or something…"

"But we might know her," Henry paused and flicked the pages towards the back of the book and rediscovering the picture he had first shown his mother. "This is us. I'm positive it is. That town is called Storybrooke, that woman is standing there and we're leaving in your bug. Clearly something happened for us to leave and lose our memories. Don't you see, that woman is trying to get us back there!"

"Henry, don't be so silly." It was now Emma's turn to let out an exhausted sigh. Before Henry woke up, she had felt so accomplished in thinking about who the woman was, now she just felt like a complete failure for not actually agreeing with the obvious.

"You two aren't talking about that stupid book again, are you?" Ryan asked, appearing in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest. "I don't like what that book is putting in your head, Henry. Maybe we should just get rid of it."

"No!" Henry shouted before he could even think about what he was doing. His eyes widened in fear as Ryan's face turned to stone. "No, I'm sorry. I really like the book, please don't take it."

"Henry, go to your room and leave the book so your mother and I can have a chat." Ryan added a fake smile to the end of his demand and glared at Emma.

The small brunette boy nodded his head with tear-filled eyes and left his mother alone in the kitchen with the book remaining open on the breakfast bar. He knew his foolishness would cause Ryan to hit his mom, but there was nothing he could do. If he interfered Emma would be punished twice as much and that was too much for him to bare to think about. But one thing her could think about was the idea of a miracle. Thats what they needed; a miracle or a saviour like the woman in the book that looked like Emma.

Meanwhile, in the kitchenette, Emma couldn't bare to lift her head to look at Ryan. Even the sound of his voice and the presence of his being made her feel physically sick, let alone actually having to look at him.

"I thought you raised him better than that, Emma," Ryan advanced towards the blonde in an intimidating manner. "I thought you had raised him to not disrespect his elders and the people who looked after him. After all, if it wasn't for me, the boy would have starved to death."

Emma bit her lip to stop herself replying with a snarky comment about how she was forced into quitting her job because he wanted her to. By now Ryan was standing by Emma's side with his fists clenched and his wrathful glare began to bore into the side of Emma's face. She closed her eyes in defeat and hoped the crestfallen look on her face would be enough for him to stop and think about what he was about to do.

But to Emma's dismay, the brute simply smirked. "You are so pathetic." He let out a sinister chuckle and raised one of his fists above the blonde. "I expected so much for from you, Emma."

Before she could even close her mind off to avoid the pain, Ryan's fist had quickly dropped into the side of her face, instantly drawing blood and making Emma feel sick. As fast as the first punch came, she felt a second being blown into her stomach. She instantly keeled over in agony and let her body fall from the tall bar stool. The fallen height from the stool did nothing to cover the searing pain that quickly arrived when she hit the floor. Then that's when everything stopped.

A loud echoing bang erupted throughout the apartment, making Emma look up in an attempt to clear her tear-filled eyes. The front door of their apartment had been blown off the hinges and was found laying in the middle of the living area. When Emma glanced back at the doorway, the first thing she saw was something she had never expected to see. _Regina_.


	7. Found

**A/N: Hello! Oh my god, thank you all so much for all of your wonderful reviews! I couldn't stop smiling when I read your reactions to the last chapter, and I know it was cruel but thats why this chapter is out so early… It's kinda an apology for the cliffhanger. I should have put this in the description and pairings part at the beginning of the story, but this chapter does contain Red Beauty, if you don't like the ship, change any connotations to mean a friendship rather than a relationship! I really hope you enjoy this chapter because I really enjoyed writing it and the next couple of chapters are going to be filled with drama! Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter six:-

A sudden gust of wind howled and whistled through the dungeons of the Dark Palace, making all of its prisoners stand to attention. Even the flying monkeys stirred from their ever sleeping state. Everyone knew what was about to happen and what role they would play in this great escape; however, Snow and Charming remains a little reluctant after hearing Ruby mutter that the wind was just as fake as Belle. No matter how hard Snow and Charming tried to rid their friend of the impression that the love of her life was not only alive but in the same prison cell as her, Ruby failed to see the truth in any of it. It hurt Snow to see how broken the once strong woman had become.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the dungeons, the Blue Fairy was in position and ready to strike. Fortunately for her, all three of the flying monkeys decided to make a trip down the corridor and towards the now empty cell that had inhabited the Evil Queen. Blue's timing was impeccable. The moment the monkeys came into view from her cell, she cast the curse and hit the three of them with identical force, sending them into the dream realm for a very short period of time.

As much as the prisoners wanted to, now was not the time to cheer and celebrate; they all still had to get out of their cells and back to Storybrooke before Regina broke the curse. Blue understood the job in hand and immediately unlocked her cell door. The first thing she needed to do was to rescue everyone with magical capabilities and restore them, which meant unlocking all of the cells that contained the fairies. Once they had all been released and had their powers restored, each fairy set off to unlock the remainder of the cells while Blue raced to the far end to release the Charmings.

"Thank you, Blue," Snow said with a weak smile as she threw her arms around the fairy.

"I understand your gratitude, your majesty, but now is not the time for such a moment." Blue wriggled out of the dainty brunette's hold and turned to face Ruby and Belle's cell. "We have to fix Red; we need her for this."

Ruby sat up off the floor and looked at the Blue Fairy in utter confusion, whereas Belle leaned against the bars with a gracious smile to hide her tear stained cheeks. Spending two weeks locked in a cell with the love of her life thinking that her presence was fake and nothing but an illusion because she was supposed to be dead actually killed her. Every time she could even attempt to comfort the other woman she would be screamed at and forced into the darkest corner of the cell. Whatever Elphaba wanted to gain out of this, Belle sure hoped she was happy because it was working. They were both broken.

"Red, I need you to close your eyes and when I unlock the cell I need you walk towards me but keeping your eyes closed, okay?" Blue's tone was calm and comforting, but Ruby's nod proved that she didn't seem impacted by it and shut her eyes. Without another word, the Blue Fairy gestured for Belle to stand by the cell door and quickly leave before her lover. She did as she was told and waited for the cell door to be opened. "Okay, Red, the cell has been opened. I need you to follow my voice and leave. Can you do that?"

As she finished her question Ruby was out of the cell and standing directly in front of her with her eyes still closed. The former Mother Superior reached up to the wolf's face and touched her temples, sending waves of magic through the woman's weak and lanky body. She had forced a message into Ruby's head that Belle wasn't actually dead and recovered all of the images of loss that remained inside her head.

"Oh my gods," Ruby gasped as the information sunk in and her eyes flew open in a frantic search for Belle.

As soon as her eyes landed on the timid woman, Ruby flung herself towards Belle and threw her arms around the small waist. Her head found its way into the crook of her lover's neck and she let her body convulse with sobs.

"I am so sorry," She spluttered into Belle's hair. "I can't lose you again."

"It's okay," Belle hushed, feeling glad to have the woman back in her arms once again. "We're okay. You're not going to lose me again, I promise."

Snow and Charming smiled lightly at the scene, knowing that the two women were going to be okay. But their minds were too focused on another pair of women; their daughter and her True Love. Nerves and anxiety filled Snow as she thought about her daughter and grandson. She only hoped that they were safe and soon in the hands of someone that loved them just as much as she.

"We have to move out, your majesties," Blue announced, pulling Snow from her thoughts and breaking up the little moment between Belle and Ruby. "We must congregate where we arrived to travel back safely."

Snow and Charming gave joint nods and set out to group everyone together in order to guide them back to the opening outside of the Dark Palace. If anything, Blue thought to herself, they needed a miracle.

"What do we do, Blue?" Snow asked as she clung onto Charming's hand as if it was her life support.

Everyone stood in a semi-circle around the king and queen with anxious faces. They all wanted to be home; even those who hated living in Storybrooke. That was home. That was where it was safe and that was where they could be happy. Snow had expected so many people to turn down her offer to return to Storybrooke, but it turned out, no-one could call the Enchanted Forest home anymore. It was a world they had lived unhappy lives in with memories that still haunted them. Whereas Storybrooke was filled with happy memories. Even though the Evil Queen had intended on stealing everyone's happy endings, they all found a new one in the other world.

"Somehow, Elphaba had got her hands on one of the giants' magic beans and foolishly left it lying around in the interrogation room. When our former Evil Queen spotted it during one of her interrogation sessions, she managed to steal it." A few gasps broke the crowd's silence. Sure, people were still surprised when Regina had done something for the good of other people, but they were all too grateful when she did. "She tossed it into my cell after she returned my powers, so we will be returning through a portal." Snow and Charming gave the Blue Fairy another gracious smile before she continued, "I'm going to need all of you to picture Storybrooke in your minds. Think of the happy times you spent there and we will be transported there immediately."

Blue looked out to her audience in hope that she would see everyone nodding in understanding. When she did, she threw the magic bean onto the ground and watched as the portal grew and formed similar strong winds that Regina's form of transportation had created previously. When the portal had fully grown, she began ushering people to jump through. Snow and Charming first, then Ruby and Belle and so on until she was the last.

* * *

_'This is too easy.'_

Regina rose to her feet and stood above the sleeping green witch. She watched the deep inhalations for a few moments before actually continuing with her plans. Without thinking of the consequences, Regina put the witch under the same sleeping curse she had given to the Blue Fairy to cast over the flying monkeys, giving her exactly twenty-four hours to convince Emma into remembering who she was. At least, she hoped it was twenty-four hours. After all, magic was different in this world than that of the Enchanted Forest. All she could do was hope that Emma would buy her story fast and they could leave.

As soon as the curse hit the witch, Regina set off towards the apartment building with no idea where she was actually going. She burst through a set of glass doors and was met by an overly happy doorman.

"Can I help you, Miss?" The doorman asked, noticing the worry written all over Regina's face. "I don't believe I've seen you in here before. Are you looking for someone?"

'_Jackpot.'_

"Yes, could you tell me where I could find a Miss Emma Swan and a Henry Mills?"

"I haven't seen Emma in a while, but they reside in number 108 with Ryan Callihan. They're on floor 5."

She had found someone. The instant tugging feeling in her chest almost became too much to bare. There was no way she was going to get Emma and there was no way that she would let Henry leave with some stranger that just happened to turn up at their door out of the blue. All forms of hope and optimism that run through Regina was slowly dying. She was completely alone once again.

"Th-thank you." Regina managed to stutter before she stepped around the doorman and stalked towards the elevator.

She had to at least try and persuade Emma to leave with her, otherwise there was going to be over a hundred people living in a forest in Maine for the rest of their lives. She was their only hope.

When the elevator let out a ding and the doors slowly opened, Regina had to force herself out of the metal contraption before it closed again. Tears stung her eyes as she spotted the white door or Emma's apartment. With a sad chuckle, she realised how much the front door resembled that of her own in Storybrooke. Even the number was the same. But that was merely coincidental, wasn't it?

As she slowly approached the door of the apartment, Regina could hear the muffled voices of Emma and Henry. This time, she didn't fight the burning tears in her eyes, no, this time, she let them fall. She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but if there was something she did know was that neither of them sounded happy.

Henry had always been a morning person, whereas Emma was not. Regina was fast to learn this after their first night on the Jolly Rodger; Emma had snapped at almost everyone for the simplest of things and genuinely sounded annoyed. But the voice Emma spoke to Henry in wasn't annoyance at all, it was sadness.

Regina leaned against the doorframe in order to hear more of Emma and Henry's conversation, and that's when she heard it.

"This is us. I'm positive it is. That town is call Storybrooke, that woman is standing there and we're leaving in your Bug! Clearly something happened for us to leave and lose our memories. Don't you see, that woman is trying to get us back there!"

Henry knew? How on earth had Henry worked it out for the second time? Regina couldn't help but feel proud of how smart her son actually was. It was something she definitely needed to give him more credit for. However, the constant mention of a woman played through her mind. Who was guiding them home? It obviously wasn't her, and it couldn't have been Snow, since she had no magical abilities whatsoever. The only person she could think of that would attempt to guide them home was the Blue Fairy, but even that theory eliminated itself.

"Henry, don't be so silly."

Emma - ever the optimistic charmer. Regina rolled her eyes at Emma's disbelief, but couldn't help but smile when she heard the blonde's voice, even if it did sound pained, vulnerable and downright hurt. The temptations of bursting through the door at that very second was all too high, but then instantly dropped when she heard the voice of a very aggressive man and it terrified her.

"You two are talking about that stupid book again, aren't you?"

Henry had the book. Regina couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, not even questioning how her son had found the book once again. Clearly, from Henry's former pleading with his blonde mother, the book had been updated and included their story too.

"I don't like what that book is putting in your head, Henry. Maybe we should just get rid of it."

Regina gasped at the harsh and biting tone the man used towards her son. She had expected Emma to jump into the conversation and defend their son, but after hearing the way her voice sounded only moments ago did Regina realise that there was something wrong in this relationship. Emma was terrified of the man she was living with. The more she thought about it, the more it made her blood boil. If he had hurt even a single hair on either Emma or Henry's heads he would be in for a shock. She was only too worried that she might make a mess on the floor of Emma's apartment once she had killed the bastard.

"No!" Henry's defensive shout drew her from her thoughts and her heart was instantly in her mouth. She was too afraid to move and defend her son, but she was determined to get inside that apartment sooner rather than later, but now was not the right time.

"No, I'm sorry. I really like the book, please don't take it."

Regina's tears were back when she heard Henry begin to beg. She had never heard him sound so afraid and the boy had been through plenty of things to make him afraid. What kind of relationship had Emma gotten herself into? She began pitying the blonde and their son even more when she heard, who she assumed was Ryan Callihan, speak once more with an even bitter tone than he had done already.

"Henry, go to your room so your mother and I can have a little chat."

A wave of relief hit Regina when she knew that this Ryan fellow wasn't going to lay a hand on her son. But then it dawned on her. What if he had sent Henry to his room only to take out his anger on Emma? Never in her entire life had she felt so afraid, but now she knew that this was the only forgivable time to let the Evil Queen break through the barriers. She wasn't just Regina Mills anymore, she was the Evil Queen again.

"I thought you raised him better than that, Emma. I thought you raised him to not disrespect his elders and the people who looked after him. After all, if it wasn't for me, the boy would have starved to death."

Too many emotions were building up inside Regina for her to actually focus on what she was going to do. She couldn't burst in there and instantly kill him. No, she had to do something that would gain her Emma's trust but would hurt Ryan at the same time.

"You are so pathetic. I expected so much more from you, Emma."

Then, the echoing sounds of grunts and punches filled Regina's ears. She could hear Emma whimpering through the door and a giant lump grew in her throat. Now she had to do something. It was either now or never. Before she could stop herself, Regina held out her hand and blew the door off it's hinges and sent it flying into the living area, opposite to where Emma was curled up in a ball on the floor.

"Emma!" She screamed as she advanced towards the blonde, who had slowly raised her head off the floor.

Regina had stunned Ryan into stumbling backwards and falling onto the floor beside Emma. When Regina dropped herself onto the floor beside the injured blonde, she noticed how truly hurt she was. Emma's nose was bleeding, showing an obvious sign that it was broken, the entire right side of her face was purple and bruised and her eyes told the entire story.

"Oh, Emma," Regina sighed, taking the blonde's face in her hands, "I am so sorry."

"What the fuck is going on? Who the hell are you?" Ryan shouted, regaining his confidence as he stood up and towered himself over Regina.

She smirked at his idiocy and rose to face him. He had at least half a foot of height against her, but by no means did he intimidate her.

"Regina?" Emma managed to breathe out as she held her stomach in complete agony.

Regina gave a sad and light nod towards the blonde, but raised her hand at the brute standing before her. She held her hand out as if to wrap it around his neck, but let the magic take over as she squeezed her hand tightly into a fist. Ryan coughed and spluttered as all of his oxygen began to run out and the pain of being choked caused him to fall unconscious on the floor.

"Emma, what has he done to you?" Regina rhetorically asked as she knelt beside the blonde, cupping her left cheek and rubbing her cheekbone with her thumb. "Everything is going to be okay, I promise. Do you remember who I am?"

"No," Emma sighed and let a tear roll down her face. "All I know is that you're Regina, you've been in my dreams since Henry showed me that you were in his book."

"Okay," Regina gave Emma a sympathetic smile before she continued. "Emma, everything in Henry's book is true. I am the Evil Queen, you are the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and we did live in a town in Maine called Storybrooke."

Emma knit her brow in confusion before squeezing her eyes shut from the searing pain of her broken nose.

"You and Henry lost your memories because of a curse, but I can get them back. We can get them back, I swear."

"Regina?" Henry's little voice took her breath from her lungs. The sound of confusion and disbelief in his tone hurt her just as much as it hurt her to see Emma in such a state.

"Yes, Henry." She gave a light smile to her son who had appeared in the door way.

"Are you going to kill me and my mom as well?"

"What?!" Regina was completely shocked by Henry's question before she realised that Henry didn't really know who she was and the fact that Ryan was laying unconscious on the floor next to her. "Oh, Henry, no. I would never hurt you or your mother, I love you both far too much. He, on the other hand, is merely unconscious and should be counting his lucky stars."

"Oh, okay. Um, are you the Evil Queen?"

Regina couldn't help but allow a small smile to grace her lips before replying, "I was the Evil Queen, but now I'm just Regina." _And your adoptive mother_. She couldn't include the last part, however, mainly because she still needed Emma to trust her, even if the blonde was squeezing her hand as tight as she could.

"So the curse and everything was real?" Regina replied with a simple nod and watched Henry rattle his brain to figure everything out. "And you're really my mom?"

"Adopted mom," She gave Henry a sympathetic smile before he ran towards her and threw his arms around her neck. "Henry, sweetheart, I'm going to need you to pack your things and collect a few of Emma's clothes too. I'm getting you both out of here, okay?"

Henry nodded quickly and ran towards his bedroom, leaving Emma alone in Regina's arms.

"How am I supposed to get my memories back if this is all true?" Emma asked weakly.

"True Love's kiss." Was the only answer Regina could give as she cradled the blonde closer to her body. She was afraid to hold her too tight as to hurt her, but then she was afraid that Emma would think she didn't really care for her if her hold wasn't tight enough.

"And who is my True Love?"

_'Me.'_

Regina's eyes filled with tears as she remembered what Snow had told her in Elphaba's cells after they had discussed the escape plan. _'I know true love when I see it, Regina. You can break this curse and save Emma.'_ If Snow White could tell the Evil Queen that she was her daughter's true love, why couldn't she prove that she was right?

She tilted Emma's face towards her own and gazed into the blonde's emerald eyes before taking a deep breath and lowering herself until their lips touched. Emma's eyes widened in horror until she felt the pull towards the brunette above her and finally let her eyes drift shut in a moment of bliss.


	8. Broken

**A/N: hello lovelies! So this is just a quick yet huge thank you for all of your wonderful reviews, they all mean so much to me so thank you! Also a huge thank you to everyone that has given this fic a chance when you followed/fave'd! Anyway, before you go on to the chapter I want to apologise for the double cliffhanger I'm leaving you with! Enjoy ;)**

* * *

Chapter seven:-

_"Emma, wait." Emma abruptly turned around to find Regina walking towards her with an outstretched arm. "There's something I haven't told you."_

_"What now?" Her patience becoming weary as her farewells began to drag out a lot longer than she had hoped._

_Regina slowly stepped forward, taking away almost all of the distance between them until they were both staring into each other's pain soaked eyes. "I know that you're not going to remember this, but I felt like I needed to tell you before you go..." She gulped and bit her bottom lip before continuing. "Emma, for such a long time I thought I hated you, and for a while I actually believed it, and then you saved Henry's life, defended me and then finally forgave me for everything I have ever done. And that's when I realised it; I am in love with you, Emma. Truly, deeply and hopelessly in love with you."_

_Emma's mouth parted for a moment of thought before her tears returned and her throat began to contract around a huge lump that had quickly grown. "I...I...Regina, I am completely and utterly in love with you too." Emma closed her eyes and let out an overdrawn and painful sigh. "I've known since the mining incident and I haven't stopped thinking about you since."_

_"It's funny," Regina gave a sad laugh and let her own tears fall, "the people who come across as the strongest people you've ever met, always turn out to be a coward in the end."_

_Emma returned the same sad smile and took Regina's hand in her own to give it a light squeeze before quickly letting go and turning away from the town for the final time._

_*x*_

The memory burned into Emma's mind and dragged her back to the world she once knew, restoring all of her memories and feelings. Good memories, bad memories and even memories that she would one day regret came flooding into her mind as if she was being forced to see life from the minds of two different people. As confusing as two lives in her head was, the feeling of a loss of connection to her lips was a little more powerful, making the blonde open her eyes to find Regina leaning over her with a beaming smile on her face an a couple of tears on her cheeks.

"You found us," The waking blonde gave a pathetic smile at the reference she knew Regina would scoff at.

"Did you ever doubt that I would?" Regina managed to slur out through her tears of joy, even if she was repeating a conversation that her former enemy had had with her own True Love. Emma was back; her Emma was back. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," Emma's voice was still croaking with the pain that still ran through her body, but her words were still sincere. "Don't ever let me leave without you again. I don't think I could stand to do it again."

"Emma, I promise I won't ever let that happen." The strength of Regina's voice had returned as she lightly pressed her forehead against the blonde's. "I've got you now."

She was astounded that Emma actually thought that Regina would ever leave her side again. After seeing the sate of vulnerability Emma had fallen into in such a short amount of time hurt her more than she could ever imagine. She wasn't the strong, fiery, independent and sarcastic woman that she once knew. No, instead she had become a shell of that very person, but nothing would change the amount of love Regina felt for Emma. Regina didn't even know how long it had been since her son and her True Love had last seen her, but she daren't question it at a time like this. She couldn't; it would only hurt her even more.

"I love you, Emma Swan," Regina whispered against the blonde's lips.

Before the blonde could reply and confess her love for the brunette above her, a sudden wave of pain hit her into letting out a loud moan of agony. Regina reacted quickly and pulled Emma towards her chest, in a slow rocking motion whilst hushing sweet nothing's into her ear. Emma's frail body shook with sobs through the pain. She was too weak to wrap her arms around Regina, but Regina knew the blonde wanted as much contact as she could get, so she took the thin and bony hands in one of her own with a reassuring squeeze.

"Shh... It's okay, I've got you," The hum of Regina's voice was enough to calm Emma in itself.

It was the first time in her life that she had actually allowed someone to hold her, rock her and soothe her. But at this point in her life, she knew she couldn't fall any further into vulnerability than she already had, so she let herself be held and soothed. The comforting feeling was something she never wanted to lose, so when Regina's rocking eased and her tight hold on Emma began to lessen, the blonde was instantly terrified, grabbing any part of Regina that she could. She refused to let the brunette leave. Everyone left or hurt her - she couldn't have Regina do the same.

"Emma, I'm not going anywhere, I promise," Regina pulled her hand away from Emma's tight grip and lifted the woman's chin to face her. "I just wanted to see your face, thats all."

She watched as the blonde settled into her embrace comfortably once again, never allowing their eyes to part. With anyone else, this would had been far too intimate, but when Regina saw the love, relief and gratitude that flooded Emma's eyes, she couldn't bare to think of another second without the woman in her arms. Regina gently placed her free hand on the blonde's bruised cheek and slowly stroked her thumb over a swelling jawbone.

"What did he do to you, Emma?" As much as this was a rhetorical question from Regina, she still wanted some form of an answer. But really, it didn't matter since the bastard was going to pay for what he had done to her family.

"The pain was from a few broken ribs." Emma said lightly as if it didn't really matter. "Whereas the real stuff he did to me - you wouldn't want to hear it. Trust me."

"I'm not expecting you to tell me now, in fact, I'm not expecting you to tell me anytime soon, but Emma, I am expecting you to tell me one day. I want you to. You can't conceal all of this; it will drive you to insanity, and believe me, I've been down that road and it would kill me to see you falling down the same path." Regina's voice began to hitch towards the end. She knew that she would never forgive herself if Emma became even the shadow of what she used to be, even if it wasn't her fault.

"Mom...?"

The uncertainty in the voice behind Regina forced an even larger lump in her throat. The first time she had seen her long lost son, she failed to see the little boy that she had watched drive away with his birth mother. Instead, she saw a young teenager. How much had she missed? Regina lifted her head to look to Henry; she knew he remembered, she only hoped that he had forgiven her for the way this had turned out.

"You found us," Before Regina could even let out a chuckle at Henry's genetic instincts, her son came bounding across the room and threw himself into a suffocating hug with his two mothers.

A feeling of acceptance and love suddenly became too overwhelming for the former Evil Queen. How could two people so pure and kind, love someone so evil and damaged? Of course, Emma had become more physically damaged than she had ever been, but Regina knew that she shouldn't allow the blonde to fall any deeper by letting her heart blacken for loving someone so evil. But there was something deep inside Regina that told her not to let go, but to hold on tight to the only two people she could ever call her family.

"For the first and final time," Regina smiled, banishing all of her negative thoughts to allow herself to revel in the familial moment. "I refuse to let the two of you out of my sight ever again."

"Good," Emma and Henry deadpanned together.

The three remained silent for a few moments just to enjoy their unusual family reunion. Emma however, let out the occasional moan or gasp as a jolt of pain would electrocute her nerves which would force her to squeeze her eyes shut in an attempt to block out the pain. The certainly wasn't something that Regina was willing to overlook, even if Henry had no idea what his mothers had confessed before their separation. So she pulled Emma closer once again and let the woman's head rest on her chest. Fortunately, however, Henry overlooked his mother's small act of kindness and allowed a large smile to grace his young features. It was clear that he was simply happy to remember his real life.

"What about everyone else? Are they okay? Are they here?" Henry questioned, suddenly becoming frantic and let go of his mothers. "They are safe, right mom?"

"I think so, Henry," This wasn't a lie, but truthfully she really didn't know. "I gave Blue a magic bean to create a portal to bring them back, but I'm not sure how their travels went. But if I know anything about your grandparents, they'll pull through and they will make sure everyone else does too."

Henry gave a light nod before a shadow of fear struck across his face when he saw a sudden movement behind Emma. It was a look Regina would always recognise, especially after their Neverland fiasco. Her son was petrified and it had nothing to do with the safety of his loved ones in Storybrooke or wherever they had arrived. It was obvious from Henry's reactions that Ryan had awaken from his unconscious state. Emma stiffened in Regina's arms after she had seen his expression too. It was a reaction that actually terrified Regina, for she had never seen the blonde so afraid. She had never seen Emma as worried, vulnerable and by gods, she had never seen the woman cry over something that was yet to happen.

Laying a light kiss on Emma's forehead, she lifted the blonde out of her lap and moved her into a more comfortable position against the breakfast bar, making sure to straighten out her spine to avoid any more rib damage. Henry rushed straight to his blonde mother and wrapped his arms around her as gently as he could, knowing about all of the cuts, bruises and broken ribs that she was trying to cover. Regina raised to her feet to face the six foot brute that was leaning over the breakfast bar in an attempt to regain his balance.

"Who the hell are you?" He barked, barely muffling Emma's whimper.

"Your biggest nightmare," Regina's sinister smirk drew the colour from Ryan's face. It was time he met his match. "You have messed with my family for far too long, so now, I'm taking them back and ending your miserable excuse for a life. That woman quivering in her sons arms used to be the strongest, guarded and most self-sufficient person I have ever met, and now she is nothing but a broken shadow of who she used to be. You have beat and attacked her in front of our son, you have made her terrified to even be in the same room as you!"

"She...But...I..." He stuttered, realising that he had no valid reasons for building such an abusive relationship with Emma.

"Save it," Regina raised her hand to stop him, imitating, not reenacting, the same move she had made before magically choking him to unconsciousness. Her scare tactic seemed to work as Ryan took a step back, almost stumbling again. "What I really want to know, Mr Callihan, is what you think I should do with you."

Regina actually surprised herself with how fast she could turn from the loving and caring mother figure to the Evil Queen. Her only valid reasoning was that her loved ones were in danger and the Evil Queen was the only one that could be intimidating enough.

She watched as a fear struck Ryan slowly step backwards and towards the far wall of the apartment. Clearly people that had no idea of magic were absolute idiots. For every step back Ryan took, Regina would take two more to make sure she could really intimidate him into falling into her trap.

"I was just about to ask you the same question, _your majesty_."

* * *

After what felt like hours of falling into an endless oblivion in the pitch dark, the long journey came to an abrupt halt as at least a hundred people spewed out of the portal and onto a long strip of concrete. Several muffled moans and groans roused Snow from her utterly confused and fairly dizzy state. When she realised they had stopped falling, she shot her eyes open and quickly sat up; immediately regretting the latter decision.

From the moment her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, she was instantly bombarded with conflicting the feelings of both relief and anxiety. They had all arrived directly in the middle of Storybrooke's Main Street as if nothing had ever happened; as is Peter Pan hadn't cursed the town and her entire family; as if Emma was about to walk down the street with Henry whilst making sarcastic comments about nearly everything. The thought that her daughter and her grandson weren't here instantly saddened Snow, but as she took a second look at the restored town, she couldn't help but let out a gasp.

The curse had been broken.

Emma would remember. Henry would remember.

Regina was Emma's true love.

_Regina was Emma's true love._

The thought made Snow groan and sigh as she let herself fall back onto the floor in a defeatist manner. Although her opinions of Regina had changed drastically over the previous month, she still didn't feel comfortable with the fact that the woman she had spent the majority of her life fighting was her daughter's true love. Snow knew that Regina had fallen in love with Emma, and even though she heard Emma confess her love to the former Evil Queen, she wasn't entirely sure whether or not to believe it, let alone accept it.

"Snow?" Charming yelled, drastically dragging his wife from her deep thoughts. "Snow, are you okay?"

Before she could reply, she felt to force of his body collide with her own on the floor.

"Charming,"

"You're okay," he breathed, giving his wife a tight squeeze. "I was worried sick."

"And you're a little over dramatic, love," Snow laughed in an attempt to push her thoughts to the back of her head, eventhough she knew it wouldn't work. "It's so good to be back home, don't you think?"

"It isn't home until Emma and Henry are here," Charming let go of his wife and pulled her up off the floor, noticing all too well that she was worried about something. "What is it, Snow? You're worried about something; what is it?"

Snow's hesitancy instantly became concerning for her husband, whose patience was vastly wearing thin. Charming folded his arms against his chest, leaned on his strongest leg and gave his wife the exact same raised-eyebrow look that they had become accustomed to from their daughter. Before replying, Snow rolled her eyes and let out a deep sigh, proving that whatever she was about to say was something that was deeply concerning her.

"Emma and Regina."

"Okay... Snow, honey, you're going to need to be a little more precise."

"I thought that would have been pretty obvious," Snow knit her brow in disappointment that Charming's rage in the Enchanted Forest didn't really mean anything. "Let's just start with the fact Regina and Emma just broke a curse with True Love's Kiss."

"We don't know if they kissed, Snow! For all we know, Regina could have kissed Henry in the same way that Emma kissed him to break the first one."

"But this doesn't feel the same way it did last time. This feels the same way that it did when you woke me from my sleeping curse. This was a different form of True Love compared to the dark curse."

"Regina is _not_ Emma's true love," Charming replied matter-of-factly.

There was no possible way that the Evil Queen was the Saviour's true love; their daughter's true love. It wasn't possible. Or at least both Snow and Charming liked to think that it wasn't possible. After everything that had happened between the three of them, it was just a little ironic that everything they had always fought for would be thrown back in their faces. It was an image that neither Snow nor Charming were entirely happy about, but they knew all too well of how Emma would react if they disapproved. They had lost their daughter twice and there was no way on this earth that they would be losing her again.

"Your majesties," The Blue Fairy muttered, joining in on the conversation between the royals. "As much as neither of you want to believe it, this curse was, in fact, broken by True Love's kiss between two people that love each other unconditionally, not maternally. As much as a maternal love is unconditional, this love is much stronger, so indeed, the curse was broken by your daughter and our former Evil Queen."

"So there's nothing we can do about their so-called '_True Love_'?" Charming asked as he failed to hide his irritated and sarcastic tone.

"I'm afraid not," Blue sighed before turning serious, "As much as I disapprove of fate's attempt at humour; I believe that if you intend to keep your daughter away from Regina, you will only be as bad as Regina herself. You must not forget that whilst you fought her, she was constantly pulling you away from one another to destroy your happiness. If you refuse to allow Emma and Regina's True Love to work out, then you're only repeating what she did to you both."

The couple knew that the Blue Fairy was right, but Charming, however, couldn't help but feel as though he would be protecting Emma if they refused to accept their love. Conflicting thoughts ran through his mind until he let out a loud groan and a defeated sigh - a sigh that was very much like the one his wife let out when she realised what had happened.

"So, what do we do now?" Whenever times were tough, Snow would never fail to ask Blue for guidance. She felt it was the only way things would return to normality if she spoke to someone that would only side with goodness.

"That, _dearie_, is a brilliant question,"

* * *

**Was that cruel? Maybe a little. But worry not, chapter eight will be up sometime within the next two days! I hope you're all enjoying this story and would love to hear if you guys would like to see anything or if your just enjoying it :)**


	9. Family

**A/N: Okay, I know, this was supposed to have been up on the weekend, but the thing is I've had a lot of trouble getting this chapter the way I wanted it and I still don't have it the way I planned, but anyway, it's here! I hope you guys like it and as always I would love to hear what you think about it! Also, a massive thank you to anyone who has left a review on this story; it means so much to me. The last chapter was posted when I was having a bad day and when all of your amazing reviews came in, I couldn't help but smile and they actually made my day so much better, so thank you!**

* * *

_Chapter __eight:-_

_"That, _dearie_, is a brilliant question,"_

Several gasps filled the air, but did nothing to muffle the infamous giggle from a man the entire town believed to have been dead. Snow looked at Charming with utter fear written across her face before slowly turning around to face the resurrected Dark One. Fear was never something that seemed to come easy to the Charmings, but when they saw the sadistic grin written all over the face of Rumplestiltskin, neither could help but let a large shiver run down their bodies.

"You…You...You're supposed to be dead," Snow stuttered as she took a slow and cautious step forwards with Charming's hand resting in the small of her back.

"Did you really think that it would have been that easy for me to die, dearie?" Rumple let out another sinister chuckle while he watched the entire town huddle behind the royal couple. "In fact, I'm rather surprised that you would all underestimate me by believing that I had actually died in the arms of my father."

"We all saw what happened, papa," Neal extracted himself from the cowering crowd to join the Charmings before his father. "We just want to know how and why you couldn't save Emma and Henry from having to leave all of us for however long it has been. You knew it was going to happen, yet you were too stubborn to even help your own family!"

"Two years," Rumple stated matter-of-factly, "it has been two years since you last saw our saviour and her son. I couldn't prevent them from going over the line because I knew where this would end up and it's exactly what I wanted. The Evil Queen is outside of the Storybrooke town line with her precious little family, Elphaba is somewhere with her and Pan is dead; what more could I want? Oh, wait, the Queen's death… That would be most unfortunate, wouldn't it? But then it would also benefit me because I won't have anyone running around condescending everything I do."

"You are _not_ killing Regina." Snow found herself saying. As much as her emotions were constantly conflicting any of her thoughts or feelings for Regina, she knew she wouldn't be able to deal with herself knowing that she would ruin her daughter's life if she agreed to have Regina killed. There would be no doubt that Emma would do everything in her power to save Regina, so why shouldn't her own mother help protect someone she loved? After all, Snow did feel as though she owed Regina a lot after everything she had put the woman through.

"After all these years I'm disappointed in you, Snow White. I actually expected you to be pleased with my intentions, what with the new discovery that Emma is most definitley the Queen's true love. I'm rather surprised you hadn't tried to kill her yourself, especially with the times you both tried and failed to kill each other."

Rumple's sneer was enough to make Charming's blood boil. The Dark One, however, was right in many ways; both of the Charmings weren't entirely pleased that Emma's True Love just so happened to be the woman that tried to ruin their lives well over 28 years ago, but they knew that if Regina was her happiness, then who were they to take that from her?

"Enough, crocodile," Hook interrupted, pushing past everyone to come face to face with Rumplestiltskin, "Regina isn't dying. I don't like the fact that Emma will chose her and undoubtably, your boy won't be too pleased either; but we would both prefer to see the lady alive and treating Emma the way she deserves, rather than watching Emma wither away because you've killed her True Love."

Taking a place beside Hook, Neal glared at his father in utter disbelief. "You can't kill Regina. She is as much Henry's mother as Emma is. Even you're not cruel enough to take your own grandson's mother away from him."

"Oh, really?" Rumple shot a sinister grin towards his son and let out a terrifying cackle before disappearing in burst of black smoke.

The entire town let out a joint sigh of relief at the fact that Rumple had decided to disperse. They had all been terrified of him before he '_died_', but now they were all undoubtably petrified of him. It was clear that the isolation had caused him some strong social issues, but Snow recognised the change in him; it was something she had seen when he was imprisoned in the Enchanted Forest. Insanity. Even if it was well known that Rumple had some minor issues with sanity, they had most certainly become more obvious.

"We can't let him do this," Snow turned in Charming's grasped and rested her head on his chest. "We have to put the past behind us. Regina just saved the entire town again and now she's saving our daughter and grandson. It's about time we returned to favour and saved her."

"Snows right," Red said as she emerged from the crowd with Belle trailing behind her. "If it wasn't for Regina, we would still be locked up in the Enchanted Forest and I would still be adamant that Belle was dead. It was probably the most selfless act Regina has ever done; we can't let her die because she didn't let us die."

The entire group huddled on Main Street gave light nods in agreement. They all knew that Regina needed to be saved whether they liked it or not. No one could deny that she deserved a second chance. As much as everyone hated to admit it, the Evil Queen had changed and become a better person. There was no doubt that she had probably saved more lives than she had ruined, but does any good deed go unpunished?

Blue glanced around the group to find everyone mentally fighting themselves. It wasn't going to be easy saving Regina's life, but it wasn't something they could refuse to do either. Having Regina on their side with Rumple's sudden personality change would mean that they would most definitely have the upper hand in the war that was to come.

"We need to set up a council." The Blue Fairy stated. "We need a war council, much like the one we had in your kingdom, Snow. That way we can plan everything and I might be able to gather enough people with magical abilities to help ward off the Dark One."

Everyone nodded in agreement and glanced around to see who was willing to volunteer. It would be a dangerous job, they all knew that, but for a war council to be in session, they would need as many people to help out as possible. But there was also the need for some sort of order in Storybrooke while the council decided the fate of both Rumplestiltskin and Regina. The town couldn't be left without a figure of high authority — the town would simply run to the ground before anything actually happened.

"Snow, Charming, Red, Hook, Neal and Tink; the six of you are trusted by Regina in one way or another, so I'm going to need you," Blue demanded as she separated them from the rest of the group. "Granny, do you think you can hold the fort?"

"Of course," Granny said with a twisted smile. It was obvious that Granny loved a good fight, but there was no denying that she really enjoys an authoritative feeling. "I'll open the diner as usual and we'll use it as a substitute for the sheriff's station."

With a nod of appreciation, Blue turned back to the rest of the group. "Grumpy, will you represent the dwarves in the council?" She received a little huff and a grumble in acceptance as Grumpy joined the council behind her. "Belle, you're smart; you know a lot about the outside world, so would you do the honours to join us too?"

"It would be my pleasure, Blue," Belle could barely hold in her smile as she ran to Ruby's side.

The Blue Fairy continued to round up the townsfolk until almost everyone had at least one job to do in order to help keep Storybrooke in control and to make sure that any of Rumple's intentions remained nothing but simple ideas. The thought of Rumple running around the town planning and plotting ways to kill Regina was enough to infuriate near enough everyone.

Dr. Whale however, was another matter. He continued to argue that Regina deserved to face Rumple's wrath after everything she had put them through, but failed to realise how many times she had saved his life since before the curse broke. He even refused to overlook the one life she took away from him and the greater one she gladly gave him during the curse. His life was rough, his father blamed him for his brother Earhart's death and he was simply cast aside. Whale was never grateful for the life Regina gave him, but in Storybrooke he was happy; he was wealthy, he was respected and could want for nothing, yet he refused to forgive the 'Evil Queen' from taking him from his home.

"I'm sorry, Blue, but I'm not helping her. She cursed us to lives alone, shouldn't we be doing the same? If you don't want to kill her, throw her into exile or cast a spell to repel her from ever entering Storybrooke again!" Whale yelled as Blue attempted to equally dictate the small town.

"No way," Charming was always the first to step up to the plate. He may have only been the son of a Shepard, but he could damn well defend his family and friends. "We can't stoop to the level she was once at! Whale, think about it; who spent two entire weeks locked up in a prison cell plotting an escape for every single on of us? Regina could have planned an escape for only her, but she didn't, she wanted to help us. Quit being so stubborn, rise above the history between you and help us! Obviously I'm not her biggest fan, especially after what I've just learned but, dammit, we're the good guys; if we can't forgive her, we're going to be just as bad as her."

Whale took his time to let Charming's brave speech sink in. Clearly the prince was right, but something deep inside him was conflicting against everything he felt. As much as Whale liked Emma and Henry, he really didn't want to see them trapped with her. Regina couldn't change. Regina couldn't care for Emma and Henry the way they need to be cared for; she would just be ruining their lives.

"Please, Dr. Whale, for Emma and Henry," Belle soothed from the back of the group.

"Fine," He huffed in defeat. "But just so you know, if the final decision is left in my hands; she won't be living in Storybrooke."

"Good, because that decision won't be yours to make. We just want to your help support Storybrooke and make sure my family gets home safely." Charming's tone was harsh and filled with determination.

When Whale finally agreed, the war council set off towards the convent and put the entire building in lockdown. The Blue Fairy, Tink, Astrid and several other fairies cast a large a powerful protection spell around the building to ward off the Dark One from any attempts of eavesdropping. With the six remaining dwarves scattered across the Storybrooke border and several walkie-talkies on the table in the middle of the large meeting room, the group would be ready for the arrival of their saviour far before Rumple would be.

The war council was made up of the Charmings, Grumpy, Neal, Hook, Tink, Belle, Ruby, Archie, Marco, Blue, Astrid and Frederick. They were the very few people in town that both had both forgiven Regina and had some actual authoritative knowledge from the Enchanted Forest. It wasn't much, but they would have to manage.

"Blue..." Snow gasped as the first entered the meeting room. "This is the table we had back in the Enchanted Forest..."

"My dear, Snow," Blue chuckled and placed a comforting hand on Snow's bicep. "It's merely a replica. I thought you might need some comforts from home to get you through this."

The perfectly round, wooden table that sat directly in the middle of the room was identical to the table that once filled the large war room in the White Kingdom of the Enchanted Forest. Seeing it was anything but a comfort for Snow. Ever since the curse broke she had wanted to return. The Enchanted Forest was the place Emma was meant to have been raised; she was supposed to have been loved by everyone in the kingdom and raised like a proper princess. Thinking about what is and what could have been made Snow tear up.

"Come on," Charming cooed as he guided his wife to the high backed wooden chair that was identical in every way to the one she would sit in on a daily basis. "We'll get them back, I promise."

"I know we will," Snow's voice hitched as she tried to form a reply that never really wanted to leave her mouth. "Its just that seeing all of this again and knowing that Emma is never going to want to go back to our home. Her home, Charming. She was supposed to have been raised there! I know we've been through all of this several times, but I just can't stop thinking about the life she could have had, rather than the one she has already had."

"Quit it, Snow." Red bit. She knew her best friend needed a reality check, and clearly she was the only one in the room with enough balls to hand it over. "You know for a fact that if Emma was here and listening to this she would flip out and not talk to you for a few days. What has been done is done. Theres no going back now and you have to get over it. Emma doesn't hold the same grudge that she used to. Yeah, she still feels like an orphan, but thats only because you're making her feel like that! The more you wish you could turn back the clocks, the more she thinks that you don't love her for who she is. She thinks that you only want a prim and proper princess. She has so many trust issues with you, Snow, you just need to prove to her that your love for her is unconditional."

The entire war council stared in disbelief as Red continued to lecture Snow on her parenting skills. They knew she was right, but interrupting the wolf when she was irritated was the last thing anyone wanted to do. The tears that had formed in Snow's eyes before Red began talking to her were gone and hidden behind cold eyes. Shutting herself off was the only way she could process what had just been said to her.

Like everyone else, Snow knew that Red was right. As much as Emma hated her childhood, she knew she wouldn't change it one bit because that was the only path that gave her Henry; and without Henry, they all knew that she never would have returned to save them. It was the price she had to pay and was glad to pay it.

* * *

_"I was just about to ask you the same question,_ your majesty_."_

Regina's head whipped around to find Elphaba standing in the doorway to the apartment. Her thoughts instantly turned to Emma and Henry who were still huddled under the breakfast bar and facing the green witch. Elphaba's powers would't be enough to kill all of them, but Regina knew all too well that the woman could harm them just as badly.

"So, Regina, what do _you_ think I should do to you?" Her hostile glare was completely empty of threats and Regina knew it. The woman wasn't mentally strong enough to kill any of them, even if she did have enough power to do so. Elphaba wasn't someone who could live with such a weight on her shoulders. "In fact, I should be asking you what you think I should do with _all_ of you. You look like such a happy family; it would be a pity to see it destroyed."

Before Elphaba could even end her sentence with a smirk, Regina had appeared directly in front of her with wrathful eyes and a wolfish grin that Red would most certainly be proud of. Clicking out of the Evil Queen's persona was difficult, but getting back into it felt as though it was something she had never stopped doing; and the Evil Queen believed in no such thing as personal space. The former queen stepped closer until she could literally feel Elphaba's hitched breath on her face.

_'Intimidation is always key.'_ Regina thought to herself.

For the first time since she arrived in this world, Regina had turned into the Evil Queen twice. She had done something she had long promised herself she wouldn't do out of the fear that the persona's powerful abilities were too addictive. Mayor Regina Mills was far too weak in comparison to the Evil Queen, but Mayor Regina had a family — something the Evil Queen threw away far too many times.

"I think, dear, you should reconsider what you intend to do. You have no idea what I'm capable of." Regina's eyes darkened at the thought of instantly throwing her hand into the woman's chest and ripping out her heart to crush it into dust. No, not in front of Henry. Instead, she tilted her head to the side and shot the woman a malicious smile. "I had expected so much more from you, Elpahaba. I expected you to have authority and for your threats to have such a bigger bite!"

Without another thought, Elphaba pushed her palm out towards Regina and magically threw the woman across the room, causing her to land in a heap in the middle of the living area. Regina lay limp and almost lifeless on the floor, instantly terrifying Emma to the point where she thrashed around in Henry's arms so much that he had no choice but to let her go. Emma ran straight towards the brunette to make sure she was still breathing before even considering moving her.

"What did you do?!" Henry shouted at Elphaba, sounding a lot like his grandfather.

"Ah, you must be little Henry." Elphaba snarled as she advanced into the apartment and towards Henry. "You have definatley got the idiotic Charming traits in you, that's for sure; but there's something more inside you... Something evil."

Regina began to stir on the floor at the sound of Henry's voice. His anger was so strong, she could physically feel him seething before she could even see him.

"Enough!" Regina screamed and sat up a lot fast than she should have. "Get away from my son,"

Elphaba stopped dead in her tracks. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy to capture Henry and Emma, but Regina was at a disadvantage; she was hurt and a lot weaker than she already had been.

"Honestly, Regina, I thought that you, of all people, would have remembered that love is weakness. Look at you – you're trying to defend your family out of love, but it's not going to work, is it? You've let yourself become weak and vulnerable and it's simply ironic." Elphaba's cocky tone made Regina seethe as she pushed herself up off the floor.

As Regina slowly came to stand, she spotted Emma crouched on the floor by a coffee table, shaking and crying at the scene around her. The blonde couldn't keep her eyes – that held a glimmer of hope – off Regina. It was clear to anyone who could see Emma that the woman had become completely empty of every emotion besides fear and that little bit of hope that resided only in her eyes.

"Actually, Miss Thropp, love is anything but weakness." Regina said, holding Emma's gaze and lightlu smiling. "It gives you a reason to fight. A reason to survive. And a reason to fight hard enough to protect the ones we love. Without love we are weak; our hearts can easily be removed and crushed. That is something I never understood until now."

The passion in Regina's voice was enough to break through Emma's walls to allow a small smile to grace her lips. She knew that Regina wasn't just talking about motherly love, especially after the conversation they had before Emma left Storybrooke. Regina did truly mean every word that left her mouth.

Flaring her nostrils in irritation, Elphaba glared at Regina as the woman crossed the room to stand protectively in front of her son. Surprising herself and Regina, the green witch plunged her hand directly into Regina's chest.

"NO!" Emma and Henry screamed simultaneously.

"I think we should prove your theory, your majesty," Elphaba said through a grin. Regina, on the other hand, looked completely emotionless. She had schooled her emotions to hide every single element of humanity in her face and her eyes.

With a light tug at the organ in Regina's chest, Elphaba failed to make the heart even budge. She continued to tug at Regina's chest until the former queen stared directly into her eyes with an accomplished smirk on her face.

"Never underestimate the power of true love, my dear," Before Elphaba could react and pull her hand out of Regina's chest, a powerful white light burst out from Regina's heart, sending Elphaba flying towards a wall at the far end of the apartment.

As Elphaba's body hit the floor, Regina knew the witch wasn't dead, but she of course, was the least of her worries. Before she could think about checking on Emma and Henry, Regina stalked back into the kitchen area to find Ryan standing stunned in the corner. Her sadistic smirk had terrified thousands on a battle field, but now, it merely made a man stand bug-eyed in a kitchen corner.

With Elphaba being unconscious, Regina knew it was time to act and get her family home, and the only way to do that was to dispose of both Ryan and Elphaba. During her time watching Elphaba sleep outside the apartment building, Regina mapped out several plans in order to rid herself of Elphaba and anyone who tried to stop her. Fortunately, her favourite plan actually included someone she could manipulate and Ryan was the perfect candidate for such a role.

"You're insane!" Ryan spat as Regina entered his personal space. "How the hell did you do that?"

Regina looked over her shoulder to see what Ryan was referring to – a very unconscious green witch slumped against a wall. "Oh, that?" Regina's infamous malevolent smirk sent more than just shivers down Ryan's spine. "The state she is in right now isn't what you should be worried about, dear, it's the state she will be in when the two of you wake up that you should be worried about."

"What? That doesn't even make any sense!" Feeling rather cocky, Ryan gave Regina a forceful shove before towering into her own personal space. "You are a psychopath, lady!"

"It's '_your majesty_', actually," Regina snarled as she pulled her fist back to accelerate it square into Ryan's face. The punch wasn't something she had intended to do, but the more she thought about the pain he had put Emma through, the more it made her realise how much she wanted to kill this man.

Ryan, who had just been knocked unconscious by a single punch, tumbled to the floor with a loud thud, sending a wave of relief over the three people who had actually remained conscious through the fiasco. As much as Regina wanted it to be, this still wasn't the time for a huge heart-felt reunion, no, she needed to act and she needed to act fast.

It was clear that Elphaba would be unconscious longer than Ryan, so the former queen set out to fill Ryan's mind with false memories involving Elphaba, manipulating him into thinking that he desperately wanted to kill her. Once she had magicked a gun by Ryan's side, she rushed over to Elphaba and gave the woman the same treatment, but with opposite memories that manipulated her into believing that she desperately wanted to kill Ryan instead.

Regina dragged Elphaba's limp body closer to Ryan's so she could cast the final curse on the two simultaneously. When the curse wore off, Ryan and Elphaba would wake up at exactly the same time and who knows what would happen when they did wake. Regina knew that they would eventually kill each other at the same time, but that was something she most certainly wasn't going to be telling her eleven year old son. At least, she thought he was still eleven.

"We have to get out of here as soon as we can," Regina announced as she stepped back to eye her handiwork. "Henry did you grab everything that you both need?"

Henry gave a quick nod and picked up the large duffle bag that he had packed before the green witch appeared in the apartment and threw it over his shoulder. Regina shared a sad smile with her son before placing a light kiss on the top of his head and rushing to Emma, who was still cowering behind the sofa.

"Hey, Emma," Regina said softly to gain the blonde's attention without startling her. "I'm going to fix your injuries, okay?"

In reply, Emma glanced up at Regina with pleading eyes. There was no doubt in Regina's mind that Emma was still absolutely petrified to be in the same room as Ryan, even if he was completely unconscious. Taking Emma's crestfallen look as an acceptance, Regina gently placed her hand on the blonde's clammy forehead and let her magic travel through her body and into Emma's. The process was quick and easy, unlike the recovery Emma would be facing when it came down to her mental injuries. That was one thing Regina wished she could fix; Emma's memories. She couldn't take the memories away completely — in fact, she couldn't even give the blonde false memories since they would dissolve every time they shared a kiss. If they ever would share another kiss, that is.

"Thank you," Emma smiled. Her smile was still weak, but her face was no longer covered in cuts and bruises, and she even had a little colour in her cheeks now. Without thinking about Henry being in the room, Emma reached up towards Regina and pulled the brunette into a deep and gracious kiss.

When their kiss broke and Regina rested her forehead on Emma's, the blonde attempted to hide her smile but failed miserably. "I've been wanting to do that for over three years," Emma sighed before giving Regina another light peck on her lips.

"Three years?" quizzed Regina. She scrunched up her face and pulled away from Emma. What did she mean 'three years'?

"It's been well over three years since we met, Regina and I've kinda wanted to kiss you from the moment I first saw you. It may even be close to four years, actually."

"Emma, my curse broke just over a year ago. It hasn't even been two years since Henry brought you to Storybrooke." Regina's confusion was completely overwhelming.

"Two years ago, I brought Henry to New York to escape Pan's curse." Emma muttered. "Ryan had been living with us for a year and a half."

Regina let her body slump from her kneeling position in complete shock. She had missed two entire years of Henry's youth in a period of two weeks — in her own timeline, anyway. The thought of missing large milestones in Henry's life brought tears to Regina's eyes. He wasn't the eleven year old boy that worshipped her anymore; he was now a thirteen year old boy that had been through a traumatic experience of watching his birth mother degrade into something she never should have become.

Emma watched the brunette tentatively until she spotted a flicker of anger in her eyes as she battled her inner demons. It was obvious to Emma that Regina hadn't known how long it had been since the three of them had last seen each other, and what stuck out the most was the need that Emma saw in the woman to want to turn back the time. It was going to be hard to accept that she had missed two years of her son's life, but Emma knew that Regina would constantly blame herself until the day she died; even if what had happened was definitely not her fault.

"I am so sorry," Regina managed to splutter.

"It's not your fault, Regina." Emma muttered as she placed a comforting hand on Regina's cheek. "We're all safe and we're all alive and we're going to go home."

"Moms, if we don't leave now, we're definitely _not_ going to be safe." Henry said; his voice was a lot deeper than Regina had remembered. It was a little factor she had overlooked in the short conversations she had had with her son since she had found him again.

"Do you have a car?" Regina quickly asked, realising that they had very little time left and jumped to her feet before offering Emma a helping hand to her feet.

"Yeah, I've got the keys," Henry smiled as he made his way towards the doorway.

"Good, now let's go home." Regina gladly said as she ushered both Emma and Henry out of the apartment and into the corridor.

With one final glance back into the room, Regina waved her hand over the wall and made the entire room appear as though it never existed. Neither Henry or Emma dared to ask what was going to happen to both Ryan and Elphaba, only feeling relieved that they would never have to face the two psychopathic sociopaths ever again.


	10. Drive

**A/N: Hello dears! I must apologise for the wait on this chapter - I've been incredibly sick over the past week and a half, so I haven't been up to writing, so as an apology, this chapter is the longest chapter to date. There isn't much progression in the storyline, but there are two rather important conversations that needed to be voiced. Hopefully you will all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! All mistakes are mine, so I apologise if there are a lot!**

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_Chapter nine:-_

By the time Regina, Emma and Henry made it to the apartment building's foyer, Emma had flinched a grand total of seventeen times. Regina had been discretely holding the blonde's hand in the tiny space between them and felt her tense every time she heard a noise, saw someone unfamiliar or when she wasn't prepared for someone to say something. Every time Emma would tense up, Regina would instantly give her hand a light squeeze while rubbing gentle circles with her thumb over Emma's hand. It wasn't much, but the light and comforting gestures were somewhat reassuring to Emma that someone was there and they actually cared.

Seeing Emma so vulnerable kept triggering things in Regina's mind. '_What if her actions towards me are only because she's so scared? What if Emma's last words to her were empty words that she felt I needed to hear? What if, when she recovers, she doesn't want me anymore?_' Regina questioned herself several times before expelling the thoughts from her mind and concentrating on getting Henry and Emma home to Storybrooke. If Emma didn't love her, True Love's kiss would never have worked. That was the only thought that Regina couldn't expel from her mind. In fact, it was the only thought that actually kept her from breaking down at the thought of was ahead of the three of them.

After leaving the apartment building's stairwell, Regina stopped for a moment to adjust to the scenery around her and set out again. Before either Emma or Henry could ask what Regina was doing, she stalked over to the large reception desk in the foyer whilst dragging Emma behind her. Little did they know, Regina was about to extract every piece of evidence of Emma and Henry's existence in New York. She muttered a few words under her breath and plastered a false smile over her face.

"Hi, could you tell me if an Emma Swan lives here please?" Regina asked, hoping that her curse worked.

"I'm afraid not. There are a few other apartment buildings on this block, it seems as though you have the wrong one." The receptionist said after typing Emma's name into the computer's database, sounding completely disinterested.

"So it would seem." Regina pursed her lips in annoyance at the receptionist's ignorance and gave Emma's hand a light squeeze. "Thank you,"

Regina spun on her heel and walked straight out of the apartment building without another word with the blonde and their son in tow. Emma and Henry shared a few confused looks as to what Regina had just done, taht was until they realised that the woman had no idea where she was going and was heading in completely the wrong direction to where she was intending to go.

"Mom," Henry addressed, hoping to pull her out of her deep thoughts, or whatever it was that caused her stalk along the sidewalk. "The car is this way." Henry pointed over his shoulder with a small smile.

He knew Regina was worried, but he also knew that she was determined to get them both home as soon as possible. Henry had never seen his mother look so anxious. With his free hand, Henry took Regina's in his own so that the three of them were linked as they walked. The gesture was something Regina needed. She needed her rock, and Henry had always been that rock. On noticing the other hand in her previously free one, Regina looked over to Henry in surprise and gave him a gracious smile.

"This is the car," Henry explained when they approached a black Volkswagen, breaking the silence that neither of his mothers was willing to break. "Ma, do you want to sit in the back? You look exhausted."

Emma gave Henry a sad smile and a weak nod before walking towards the passenger side of the car. Henry unlocked the car and waited for his blonde mother to slip into the back and shut the door before turning to Regina with tear filled eyes. He threw his arms around her dainty waist and let his forehead rest in the crook of her neck. Regina couldn't help but smile at the fact that he still wasn't tall enough to properly lean his head in the crook, but she wrapped her arms around her son as tight as she could and let several tears fall down her cheeks. It had been merely two weeks since she had seen Henry, but for him, it had been two entire years and it did nothing but cause her heart to ache heavily in her chest.

"I've missed you so much," Henry said through a series of racked sobs. "It's been so hard without you, and Ma has missed you too, I'm sure of it. I saw the way she looked at you when we had our memories back. She looked at you as if you were a miracle. And you are, but for her to see it too; that's a lot."

"I know, Henry." Regina sighed and dragged her fingers through Henry's hair, refusing to let go of her little boy. "I missed you too. I am so proud of you; you have been so strong over the past two years and you have grown so much! You're defiantly not the little boy I said goodbye to two weeks ago, that's for sure."

"Hey, I'm only thirteen," Henry smiled into Regina's chest and squeezed her waist tighter. "I'm still your little boy and I always will be."

"Good." Taking a deep breath, Regina moved her arms to Henry's sides and held him at arms length. "Come on, let's go home."

With a weak smile and a nod, Henry made his way to the passenger side of the car after throwing his and Emma's belongings into the trunk and slipped in, leaving Regina alone with her thoughts that were too busy tormenting her to register the fact that she was crying. As she stood alone at the back of the car, Regina constantly questioned herself why she had let all of this go on for so long. Of course, it hadn't really been two years for her; but two weeks was long enough. But Emma and Henry had been living with that bastard for almost two years without knowing of the family they had in another world. The family that were going through hell to get them back.

Before Emma and Henry could become concerned about the brunette, she joined the pair in the car and let the engine roar to life. The sound of the rattling engine was the only sound to actually fill the car for a few minutes. It wasn't an awkward silence, but it wasn't a comfortable silence either. With Emma sat in the backseat, Regina felt almost anxious that the blonde would suddenly have a breakdown during the long journey ahead of them, so she tilted her rear view mirror to allow her to watch Emma as she fell asleep across the backseats of the car. Regina knew the action wasn't missed by Henry, even if he didn't mention it until after his birth mother had fallen asleep.

"If I ask you a serious question, would you be completely honest with me?" Henry queried in a quiet tone after he noticed Emma had finally fallen asleep.

His question had broken the long and overdrawn silence that had filled the car and partially, Regina was thankful for it, but another part of her fought for her to remain silent and not answer Henry's question. She knew exactly what his follow-up question would be, and Henry was a stubborn child, just like his mothers, so there was no way to beat around the bush in this scenario.

"Of course, dear." Regina replied, hoping that her son wouldn't notice the slight nervous hitch in her voice. "What is it that you want to know?"

"You and Ma." He stated bluntly. "I saw you kiss back at the apartment."

"Henry, that wasn't a question; that was a statement."

"You know exactly what I want to know, mom."

Regina let out an overdrawn sigh of frustration and dragged her fingers though her hair. She did know exactly what Henry wanted to know, but it was a question that she wasn't really prepared for, especially due to the fact that even she didn't know what was going on between herself and her son's birth mother.

"Do you remember our goodbyes at the town line?" Henry nodded lightly, "I was the last person to say goodbye to your mother, but our farewell didn't exactly go to plan." Regina was stalling and she knew it. The events of that day was something she still hadn't come to grips with. "When I saw the pain and fear in her eyes, I knew it was time to tell her something I had needed to tell her for such a long time, and I did. I told Emma that I had fallen in love with her."

As if to wait for Henry's reply, Regina gripped the steering wheel of the car tighter and refused to let her eyes drift from the road. She desperately wanted to see Henry's reactions, but on the other hand she didn't want to see the look on his face if he disapproved of the two of them. Disapproval from her son wasn't something that she wanted. This was her chance at a happy ending, so for her to have her happy ending, she needed Henry to be happy and supportive too. After a long and pregnant pause, Henry actually decided to talk.

"And she told you that she was in love with you too?"

"Yes,"

"Did you mean it? Every word you said to her; did you truly mean them?" Henry was concerned and worried and honestly, he had every right to be, especially after what he had been witnessing his birth mother go through over that last two years.

"Yes. I meant every single word, and I still do." Regina admitted. It wasn't something that she wanted to admit out loud, however, it was something she had to do, not only for Henry, but for herself too. "Henry, I love Emma with all my heart. It may be black, but together, you and Emma are changing that. I don't believe that it is entirely black any more. As much as we fought in the past, it was nothing more than denial and misunderstanding. The first time the two of us met, my heart constantly fluttered. At the time, I thought it was just gratitude that she had returned you to me, but now I've realised that it was so much more than that. It had been, for me anyway, both love and denial at first sight. I really wanted to hate her and push her away, mainly because I knew exactly who she was, although, there was something deep inside that I needed to dislike her because there was a possibility that she would take you away from me."

Henry remained silent and fidgeted in his seat until he was facing his brunette mother. He watched her sit in silence while she internally battled with whatever she was feeling for a few moments until she looked at him with an honest smile. It was obvious that this admittance was difficult for Regina, but Henry had known her long enough to know that she would continue if he gave her a few moments to take a breather and to relax.

"Emma is the only person that has ever matched me. She has challenged me, fought me and even defended me; which is so much more than any other person has ever done for me. I know that you would, Henry, but with her it's different. She fought for me because she wanted to - not because it was the right thing to do. She even ignored her parents because she wanted to save me. For the majority of my life, people have wanted to kill me; but not her." Regina's voice hitched several times and her eyes continued to refuse to meet Henry's. So far he had been understanding, but his silence nerved her more than anything else.

Before continuing, Regina looked up to her rear view mirror several times to watch Emma's chest rise and fall rhythmically. Her body looked at peace, whereas her face begged to differ. Emma's newly restored features were scrunched into a frown and her bottom lip was upturned into a little pout; the sight made Regina desperately want to stop the car and soothe the blonde. However, the thought of waking Emma from possible memories made her continue to drive straight. She remembered Archie telling her, merely days after her curse broke, that his dreams were filled with flashbacks and memories from his life in the Enchanted Forest. She just hoped that Emma was remembering the life she had before, rather than the life Regina was rescuing her from.

"Your mother has done so much for me, Henry, and she is probably one of the only people in this world, or any other for that matter, that I actually trust with my heart." Regina continued, hoping that Henry was understanding everything that she was saying. "She knows who I am, what I have done and what I am capable of, yet she has refused to run, and instead, she has fallen for me as much as I have with her."

Regina contemplated on continuing until she saw Henry's mouth open in hesitation.

"Wait, mom, how did Ma and I get our memories back?" Henry asked as if her had just had a brain-wave.

"I...Uh...I kissed her." Regina stuttered, still unsure of how Henry was taking the news.

"Oh my god. True Love's kiss. You broke the curse with True Love's kiss?"

Letting out a small sigh of relief, Regina knew Henry was pleased with his new findings. She didn't even need to look over to know that he was beaming in the passenger seat. When she did look over to her son, she couldn't help but join him in expressing how relieved she was.

"I had no idea that it would work, let alone believe that Emma was my true love. She has always been my forbidden and hidden love, which I guess is quite poetic..." Regina let herself trail off into her thoughts without saying anything else to Henry, eventhough he watched his mother smile coyly to herself.

Henry had never actually seen his mom look so happy; so smitten. The thought made Henry laugh inwardly - the Evil Queen had become smitten for the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. The image was actually as insane as it sounded. But Henry couldn't help but feel pleased for his mothers. They had both spent so long being tortured and alone that their broken personalities actually fit together perfectly, even if none of them saw it beforehand. They were each other's missing pieces.

"So does this mean that the three of us are going to be living together like a family?" Henry's childish tone brought Regina back to reality with a pang.

"I don't know, Henry," she let out a long sigh and continued to stare at the road, once again. She really didn't know what would happen. Regina had no idea what they would be going back to when they got home to Storybrooke. For all she knew the town could be either completely unpopulated or the complete opposite. Little did she know that her idea of the latter was correct, apart from one little glitch. "After what your mother has been through over the past two years, I can't imagine what she's going to be like when we get home. She may adapt well, but you and I both know what your mother is like; Emma is the most unpredictable woman in all the realms."

Henry let out a little chuckle before continuing his questioning. "So now that you know you love each other, does that mean that you guys will stop fighting and trying to kill one another?"

Now it was Regina's turn to let out a chuckle. "That is something I definatley can answer. No, Henry, we probably won't stop fighting and trying to kill one another because that's who we are. Emma and I are incredibly headstrong women that like to have our own way, so if this does work out and we decide to make a relationship out of True Love, undoubtably we will continue to fight. Okay, maybe we will ease off on trying to kill each other..."

"But you will try to make her happy though, won't you?"

"Of course I will, dear. Whether Emma wants to try this relationship or not, then we will still be friends and that means that I will always care for her no matter what. Besides, true love doesn't always mean a romantic relationship, you know?" Henry raised his eyebrows at his mother as if in question for her to continue. "True Love is the same thing as soul mates and soul mates are people that have lived several lives together, whether or not they're in a relationship, or whether they're siblings or even best friends, but somewhere in their life times they find each other. Your grandparents, for example, take that idea far too literally for my liking. But you see, True Love doesn't always start out with love. The first time Snow and Charming met, Snow was a bandit and just so happened to steal Charming's treasures from his carriage. He hit her clean off her horse and onto the floor after he found her and from then on they disliked each other but kept on finding each other."

"How did they fall in love if they hated each other so much to begin with?"

"I know your book wasn't clear about everything, dear, but that is something you will have to ask your grandparents. Emma and I, for example, we're expected to hate each other right from the beginning, so with the perceptions and influences of other people, we did. We truly hated each other. However, your mother, being the White and honourable Knight that she is, stopped listening to what everyone else said about me and saw me for who I am and I her."

"Is that when you fell in love with her? When she saw who you truly were, I mean," Regina could tell by the look on her son's face that he wanted to know everything that he could about the love his mothers shared for each other.

"Honestly? The first time we met, when you dragged her from Boston, and she turned out outside our home, I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. And then it dawned on me. The more I looked, the more I pieced together exactly who she was and from then on I disliked her; that's why I wanted her to leave and never come back." Regina stopped for a little while and looked up to her rear view mirror once more to get a glimpse of the peacefully sleeping blonde, who's face was now as calm as her breathing. "But I'd like to think that I fell in love with Emma that day at the mines. That was the day she proved her worth to me. She was willing to put her life on the line to rescue you and made sure that I was still safe. Even during the curse, no one had ever been willing to risk their life for me and from then on, she has been my Saviour."

Henry smiled at his mother once again and glanced over his shoulder to his blonde mother in the backseat. "I think she will want this," He said, still looking over his shoulder, "I think she wants you. I mean, before all of this happened she really liked you; I don't know if she had a crush on you, but I know that she secretly wanted to be around you all of the time."

"Do you think so?" Of course, Regina was hopeful that Emma would at least want to try a relationship between them, but the thought of putting Henry through such high hopes and for it to only fail made her shudder with anxiety.

"I do. But I also think you should both wait, and I know that you will, but it's going to take a while for her to want to be in that situation again. Ryan was such a jerk to her all the time and whenever I tried to defend her, he would send me to my room and they would fight. Well, he would fight her."

The image of a very timid and vulnerable Emma Swan was something Regina still had trouble picturing, even after what she had already witnessed that day. Emma had never backed away from a fight, she always attempted to instigate one, and she was most certainly not a coward.

"Henry, did he ever hurt you?"

"No." His voice was stern and left no room for hesitation. "Ma wouldn't let him anywhere near me – that's why she was always so badly hurt. Any anger that he had or couldn't control he would take it out on her and use her as his personal punching bag."

Regina bobbed her head lightly and looked towards her son with tear-filled eyes. "I'm so sorry, Henry. This is all my fault."

"This is not your fault. No way. This is Greg and Tamara's fault for being stupid enough to trust Pan. If that hadn't happened, I never would have been taken to Neverland, you never would have had to risk your life to save me, Pan never would have replaced my shadow with his and his stupid curse would never have been cast. So don't blame yourself for this because we don't blame you." Regina had never felt so proud of her son. He was wise, yes, but he was also as stubborn as herself and his birth mother.

After Henry's valiant and stubborn speech, the two returned to sit in silence once again. Nevertheless, the silence for Regina was deafening. Without any distractions, Regina's mind couldn't help but wander into thinking what her son and Emma had gone through. It had been a reoccurring thought ever since the day Emma drove away in her bug and headed towards New York City.

Dragging her mind away from Emma, Regina let out an audible sigh. "Henry, would you tell me about your life in New York?" As the question left her lips, even Regina reacted to how timid her voice sounded. "Even though it's only been two weeks for me, each time I look at you it's a huge reminded of how much of your life I have actually missed."

"Well, for me it has been two years, so will you tell me what happened to you in the Enchanted Forest for all of that time?" Henry pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned his head on the window. Regina could spot the sadness in his eyes, even though he was trying so hard to hide it.

"Of course I will."

"Ma and Ryan met in a coffee shop after she found herself a new job as a bail bonds person and I started at a new middle school which was a few blocks away from our apartment. It was okay, but compared to the education system in Storybrooke, that one sucked. It took me a while to make friends and even when that happened it was pointless in having friends because Ma was worried that I didn't know the city well enough and then Ryan got involved. When he moved in, after six months, he didn't like me going anywhere without him and Ma. He never thought it was safe, so the only time I left the apartment was for school or to shop. I hated it. Mom did too. Not long after he moved in, he kinda forced her into quitting her job to make sure that she stayed at home all of the time."

Regina scoffed at the thought of someone forcing the Emma Swan that she knew into doing something she really wouldn't want to do.

"She refused." Henry continued, acknowledging his mother's scoff. "She would have put up a better fight too if he hadn't hit her. It was the first time he showed her any violence since they got together and honestly, she was so scared. Ma would deny it, of course, but I could see how scared she was every time she looked at me after that day. Sometimes he would flirt with her afterwards and if she didn't like it, he would always say he would 'talk to her later'. I don't know what that meant, but the next day she would look worse than she had the night before, or she just wouldn't get out of bed. When he wasnt there and it was just the two of us, she would promise to get us out of there. Then he would go weeks without fighting her and it would feel normal, and we would watch movies together and laugh and it was really weird because it felt nice. Ma seemed happy, Ryan wasn't hurting her and it just felt peaceful. He sold her Bug soon after he made her quit her bail bonds job and from then on she purely detest him.

"My grades in school were always high, mainly because I was always sent to my room so Ryan could take his anger out. Ma really pushed for me to be top of the class; I eventually had the highest grades in all of my classes, so she was pleased. Apart for that, life in New York was pretty boring. Well, boring compared to Storybrooke, anyway."

"I'm glad that she's actually capable of doing something's right," Regina chuckled to herself as she tried to imagine Emma limiting their son's sugar intake and actually scolding him for flunking a test. She tried to hide how much she was hurting for the blonde by trying to skirt around what Henry had told her. "Well, I actually hope that Storybrooke will be boring for a little while. It's going to take a lot of recovery time for Emma to get used to the way things were, especially after what happened. Even though our Saviour remembers everything, she still lived through all of that in New York and that's not really something you forgive and forget overnight."

Henry nodded in understanding and remained silent. What Regina had just told him was something he had figured out immediately; it wasn't hard to piece together that Emma would need to build up her trust again. Hell, he even knew that for the next couple of months, Emma was going to be freaking out at the sound of his name.

"So how did you come around to calling Emma 'Ma'?" Regina asked to fill the silence that was already building between the two of them.

"When we crossed the town line and our memories were lost, I called her mom like all the time and she hated it. So this one day, before she met Ryan, she came home from work and looked me square in the eye before saying 'Ma' with a straight face. I burst out laughing because I had no idea what she was talking about, then she continued and wanted me to call her that from that moment on because Ma sounded like an abbreviated version of Emma and I also know that it was because she didn't feel capable of being a mom after her childhood. I didn't say anything about it, neither did she, but we both knew her reasonings and I understood - _understand_ - completely."

Before Regina could open her mouth to reply, a light gasp and several sounds of stirring escaped from the backseat of the car. Two pairs of brown eyes shot up to the rear view mirror that was still tilted towards the sleeping blonde behind them. Emma's face was scrunched up, her eyes squeezed shut and several tears ran down her face. Without hesitation, Regina abruptly stopped the car on the empty freeway and threw herself out of the car and towards one of the doors to the backseats. As she slowly opened it, she realised that Emma had began to scream and squirm in her dreaming state, causing her to thrash her body around in the small space. Before the blonde could hurt herself or scare Henry anymore, Regina slid onto the seat and attempted to gather Emma in her arms as tightly and reassuring as she could.

Comforting someone other than her son was never a strong suit for Regina, but as she held and soothed Emma in her arms, the feeling was strangely natural, and even through the thrashing and squirming, Regina could feel the blonde begin to relax in her arms. As Emma's breathing slowed and regulated from her series of hyperventilated shrieks, she began to open her eyes to glimpse at the world around her. On seeing Regina, she jumped and completely forgot about where she was and who she was with.

"Hey," Regina smiled and brushed a few strands of hair behind Emma's ear as she received a confused look, "it was just a dream. It was just a dream." Emma relaxed even more into the embrace and let out a sigh as her eyes filled with tears. "Emma, I've got you, it's okay."

The blonde continued to weep uncontrollably, making Regina scoop her into her arms and closer to her chest. With a light rock and a series of sweet nothing's that turned into a calming mantra, Emma began to relax again and wrapped her arms around Regina's waist, grateful for the strong grasp around her own body. The three sat in silence for the better part of ten minutes, with only Regina's soothing hum to fill the air.

"We only have an hour left until we get back to Storybrooke," Regina began, taking into Emma's hair as she continued to hold the blonde tight against her chest. "Do you want to swap seats with Henry?"

It was clear to Regina that Emma didn't want to be alone in the backseat anymore. Just the thought of being alone at all made Emma sick to her stomach - she had spent far too much of her life alone, and now she had her son, her parents in a quaint little town and her True Love to keep her from being alone ever again. But of course, with the insecurities that had built up in Emma Swan over thirty years of her life, she couldnt help but feel anxious all the time that her 'family' was an illusion that could fade at any moment. All she wanted was to keep everyone close as a reminder to herself that they weren't going to leave out of their own will.

Emma gave a light nod in reply, receiving a kiss on the top of her head from Regina in understanding. Regina hadn't meant for the kiss to mean anything more than an acknowledgement of Emma's nod, but to the blonde, it meant so much more than that. The small gesture was enough for Emma to feel safe; to feel like she was being protected by the woman that held her close.

When Emma and Henry had switched seats, it had only taken the teenager five minutes to fall asleep. The car had barely started moving when Regina noticed his eyes beginning to droop in the rear view mirror and couldn't help but smile at the innocence her son was willing o show through sleep.

"He hasn't changed much," Emma said when she noticed Regina watching Henry fall asleep. "He's grown exactly four inches, his weight hasn't changed much, he has been sick once - he caught a cold when we got caught out in a storm, and he really excelled in school."

With a weak smile of gratitude, Regina tried her hardest to fight away the tears that were building up aggressively behind her eyes. Emma had remembered all of the things that Regina would have remembered, and for that, she was grateful. Noticing the tears in the brunette's eyes, Emma placed a reassuring hand on the woman's leg; it was going to be hard for the two of them to come to terms with what had happened over the last two years, but with the two of them as bullheaded as they were, there would be nothing that would stop them from getting their Happy Ending.

"Thank you," Regina managed to mutter, though keeping her eyes fixed on the road ahead of them. "For everything, I mean. Thank you for breaking the curse, thank you for giving me Henry, thank you for showing me that if I truly fight, I don't have to lose anyone that I love. And most of all, Emma, thank you for being everything that you are."

Admitting and confronting emotions was something Regina was never used to. For her entire life, everything she felt, apart from anger, was concealed and hidden from the world around her. Often enough, Regina was able to hide her own emotions from herself, which eventually sent her deep into a pit of denial and caused endless amounts of difficulties with her mental health; none of had ever actually been dealt with.

Everyday was a constant battle for Regina between her emotions and her expectations. Throughout her youth, she had been held to a higher standard, she was always expected to act, feel and think like someone she wasn't, so the constant accumulation of confused and tired emotions slowly began to toy with everything that Regina was, had been and ever will be.

"What I said, before Henry and I left," Emma began, having removed her hand from Regina's leg and started to stare at the dashboard in front of her, "I meant it, you know. I am, and I think I always will be, completely and utterly in love with you. And you were right; we are cowards. I can't actually imagine what our lives would have been like if we weren't so stubborn."

A small smile quirked up on the corners of Regina's lips. "I'm almost certain that those little romance novel clichés would beg for me to say that I wouldn't have it any other way, but honestly? Seeing you in that apartment with _him_ actually killed me. Because of us, you were hurt and trapped and I can't help but feel like it's all my fault."

"No, Regina," Emma snapped, replacing her hand on Regina's leg once more and turning in her seat thee way Henry had done whilst she was sleeping. "This is not your fault. None of this is your fault. Everything that happened, happened for a reason and you need to understand that. If Pan's curse had never hit, without a doubt, the two of us would still be living in denial, we would probably go back to trying to kill one another and I'm positive that my mother would have attempted to unite me with Neal or Hook."

Regina rolled her eyes at the thought. Emma was right. Of course she was right - she was the only on in their situation with a level head at the moment. She had two lives fighting for control of her mind and her sanity; she had two different versions of herself guiding her towards the way she needed to be going. Whereas Regina, she just had herself. The only self that had been hidden away behind a facade of an almighty powerful Evil Queen.

"When we get back, do you think we could try something between us? I know we never really spent any time alone together without at least one of us walking away bleeding, I just thought that maybe I could take you out for dinner or something?" This time Emma left her hand on Regina's leg and used her other hand to play with the hem on the bottom of her old, tatty white tank top.

"Emma, as much as I really want to, I don't think we should dive straight into this — especially after what you've been though. I mean, the last thing you want to be doing is putting all of your trust and love into someone so fast. I just don't want you to get hurt." Regina fought with everything in her being to not look at the blonde beside her, for if she did, she knew that she would have no problem in saying yes, but for their own good, Regina knew she had to say no. "If we even considered to attempt this right away it would damage us in the long run. Someday soon, you're going to wake up and panic because I'm asleep by your side and you're going to hate me for it. If we are going to do this, we should wait and I think you should visit Doctor Hopper for a little while."

"Wait, are you saying that through all of the shit I have been through over the past two years has messed up my judgement or that I should be locked away for a little while in Storybrooke's Asylum?" Emma's voice was harsh and barely above a whisper. The last thing she wanted to do was to wake Henry for him to hear his mothers arguing once again.

"No, Emma, of course that's not what I'm saying!"

"Then what are you trying to say, Regina?" Emma pulled her hand away from Regina's leg as if it was on fire and continued to watch the brunette's every move.

"What I'm trying to say is that…ugh…gods, Emma, how can you not see that all of that '_shit_' is going to mess with you in the long run? You fell asleep in the back of the car and had a nightmare about it, for crying out loud!" Regina bit back on her quivering lip. As much as she didn't want to be so harsh on the blonde, she knew that Emma needed someone to tell her straight. "This isn't going to fade away like a little memory, Emma. You of all people should know that."

"Of course I know that, but Regina, I just want you to be the one to help me get through this! I need you and clearly you need me too. I don't know what happened to you when Pan's curse hit, and believe me, I really want to know because you're defiantly not the same person that I said goodbye to exactly two years ago. Regina, you've changed. You were damaged and tormented before, but now, every time I look in your eyes, all I see it hurt. Yeah, I saw it before, but now you're drowning in it. What the hell happened to you, Regina?"

"Elphaba. Elphaba happened."

"Hold on, Elphaba as in the green one from the Wizard of Oz? The Wicked Witch of the West? The woman that turned up at the apartment and attacked you?"

"The very same," Regina sighed, hoping that Emma wouldn't ask her anymore questions about her return to the Enchanted Forest, but obviously, with Emma Swan being Emma Swan, Regina was about to be bombarded with a million questions.

"What the hell did she do? Is everyone okay? She didn't hurt you, did she?"

"Emma, everyone's fine. She just so happened to have messed with Pan's curse, finding all of us outside my old palace. The palace that she decided to take over." Regina muttered the latter in a bitter tone and gripped to steering wheel a lot sighter as she exited the freeway and found herself driving down another empty road.

"What happened to you, Regina?" Emma pressed again, refusing to give Regina any form of leeway out of the conversation.

"She imprisoned and tortured us for information on yours and Henry's whereabouts. My torture was both physical and mental, whereas everyone else received a mental interrogation. Belle and Ruby's situation was completely different, however." Emma's eyes widened at the confession, pleading for Regina to continue. "She tortured Ruby to the point where she believed that Belle was dead, so when she was returned to the cell they shared, she was utterly confused. Ruby screamed at Belle all the time, arguing that she was nothing but a hallucination. The physical pain of a broken heart was enough for both Belle and Ruby.

"Your mother and father were actually quite lucky. She merely reminded them of the situation they put you through at the beginning of your life. She got inside their heads and they would both return to their cell in either fits of sobs or a murderous rage. The latter being something that only happened once."

Emma waited for a little while to let everything sink in. The thought of so many people helping her and refusing to tell Elphaba anything about her or Henry. The feeling of being a part of a large family was far too overwhelming for Emma to even stop her lip from trembling. "How did she find us? How did you actually find us?"

"I followed a gut instinct." Regina knew exactly what that gut instinct was, and undoubtably, so did Emma. "Something inside me was telling me exactly where you were. Her intentions were to get to Storybrooke. To get to you. Being locked in a huge cell on my own allowed me a lot of time to think and plan. Elphaba is incredibly predictable, so I devised a plan. A plan that actually worked and has everyone safe."

"So the whole 'I will always find you' thing with my parents is actually true?"

"Ironically, yes. But fortunately for us, it led me straight to you and Henry."

"Thank you, Regina, for finding us." Emma added. "I don't actually know where I would have been if you hadn't. I still don't understand why I stopped fighting."

"There was no way I could have lived another day without knowing that the two of you were safe, Emma. The idea of finding you was the only think that _kept me_ fighting." Regina hesitantly stretched her hand out towards Emma and took the frail woman's hand tightly in her own. "That's the last time I'm going to be looking for the two of you, okay?"

Emma couldn't help but smile at Regina's attempt at a chastising tone — somehow the Evil Queen lost her bite when her heart was beginning to fill with both love and hope. "Okay."

The two sat in a comfortable silence whilst holding the other's hand for another half an hour of their journey. That was until they reached the infamous 'Welcome to Storybrooke' sign on the abandoned forest route.

They were home.


	11. Home

**A/N: Hello dear readers! I can't believe I delayed this one too! But I was in Berlin and I had very little time to write, so here it is - finally. I hope you enjoy this ****chapter, because the next few chapters are gonna get juicy! Thank you all for your amazing reviews and all of your faves and follows, they are what keeps me going, so thank you again.**

* * *

_Chapter ten:-_

The war council had been in session for well over an hour before Charming actually decided to agree with a proposition that Neal had gladly put forward at the very beginning of the meeting. Their plan; to trap Rumplestiltskin wherever he resided, strip him of any magical abilities and leave him for Regina to decide his punishment. It was a simple plan, but it was one that could be agreed on my all; including Regina herself. Although Neal hated to talk about his father in such a way, he knew that he had to do the best he could for his son and his mothers, even if that meant banishing his father to another realm or worse - killing him.

Charming, of course, was reluctant to fall for a plan so dark, but with his insisting wife by his side and the sad eyes of their friends, Charming had no choice but to agree with Neal's plan. After all, it was the only plan they had and possibly the only way that they could help Emma, Regina and Henry arrive home safely. With Rumple's nerve of actually expressing to the entire town that he intended to kill Regina, the war council became only more determined. Regina had saved them all on countless occasions - in fact, she had saved them more than she had actually try to kill them. She even made their lives better when trying to take away their happy endings. Now it was time for them to actually thank her.

With the decision made, the group sat back in their seats and remained silent for a little while. They were all completely exhausted after their rough two weeks in Elphaba's torture prison that any form of relaxation or serenity was welcomed gladly and with open arms. That was of course until a crackling noise erupted from one of the walkie-talkies on the middle of the table.

"Come in..." The voice echoed through the speaker, making Charming dive towards it. "Come in... It's Grumpy on the town line."

"Grumpy? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, of course it is. Just a walk in the park." Grumpy's voice dripped with irritation and sarcasm, making the entire war council roll their eyes. "Everything is like a fucking ray of sunshine."

"Thanks for that, Captain Sarcasm." Charming bit, making Grumpy's tone completely. "What's going on Grumpy?"

"It's Gold. Something is happening at the town line. It's like some sort of barrier or protection spell and it's coming down like a dome. It's definitely dark magic and it's coming down fast."

"Shit..." Ruby muttered under her breath, breaking the silence that had covered the room.

Charming threw down the device and began pacing behind his seat, contemplating all of the scenarios that could occur should the Dark One succeed in his quest to barricade Storybrooke. The only thing that kept him from making any irrational plans was the thought of his daughter and his grandson. Two of the three people that meant the whole entire world to him. If he did something stupid, it could cost him his family once again.

"He's trying to cloak Storybrooke from Regina." The Blue Fairy chimed in, actually beginning to sound worried about the current turn of events. It was true that she never say eye to eye with the former Evil Queen, but in this situation, and the one in Elphaba's dungeon, they needed to be on the same side in order to save everyone. Putting all petty thoughts of her past with Regina aside, Blue stood from her seat and leaned on the table before addressing everyone. "We have to stop this. I will take the fairies to the town line where we will attempt a counter curse. I have no idea how long we can hold it of, and I really don't know how much power Rumple has gained from his realm jumping; for all we know, he could be even more powerful than he already was."

"How will we know that Emma and Regina will actually arrive that way?" Snow asked and she wrung her hands in her lap.

"They will come the same way Emma did when she first arrived. Regina won't want to bring Emma back through the way she left. She will play to the town's strengths and drive past the well which is still full of magic. We can attempt to drain power from there, but a lot of it is dark magic and I'm not sure if my girls can absorb that much evil."

Ignoring everything that the Blue Fairy had told her, Snow began to question herself. She knew her daughter had trust issues and was just as stubborn as her father, so it would have to have been a miracle if Regina had managed to convince her of everything that had happened. "But what if they didn't break the curse? What if Emma didn't recognise Regina and refused to leave with her? What if-"

"It's broken." Blue interrupted a very frantic Snow and offered a small smile, of which was returned with a gracious smile and a sigh of relief. "I felt it while we were discussing Neal's plan. At first I thought it was Rumple playing around with spells and curses, but then I felt an overwhelming amount of good magic mixed with dark magic. They equalled each other perfectly and now, it's only getting stronger, which means they're on their way, Snow."

Before the Blue Fairy's words could sink in, the ground beneath them shook violently, sending waves of dark magic throughout the own.

"Everyone to the town line immediately." Charming demanded as he looked for approval in the Blue Fairy.

Not wanting to be told twice, everyone jumped to their feet and practically sprinted out of the Storybrooke convent. Some took cars, others felt strong enough in themselves to actually attempt to run. The line wasn't ridiculously far away, but it wasn't entirely close either, so those on foot actually had the sense to inform any wandering citizens to return to their homes and lock their doors, providing everyone else with a little more time to get to the line and stop the barrier from falling further.

To the untrained eye, it would be believed that, like any other winter day on the Maine coastline, the sky was bleak and almost black. But to those who knew exactly what was happening realised that the black shadow above the New England town was not caused by mother nature at all, but the infamous Dark One. The dark barrier curse had began to form directly above the centre of the town and was slowly beginning to encase the town beneath its bleak clouds of dark magic. Although the barrier was falling slow, the time they had remaining was very little. If they were going to take action, and they definitely were, they they were going to need to act fast.

The Blue Fairy, the Charmings and Neal were first to arrive at the town line, allowing them time to actually figure out a plan in order to stop the barrier from falling,

"All of the fairies have been requested and are on their way," Blue told the group as she nervously watched the dark magic descending. "If that is what I think it is, then we don't have much time. The fairies will work in shifts - I can't have them all draining power all at once. If something happens, we are going to need reserves in order to fend off whatever comes our way."

"Neal, do you think you could begin to put our plan into motion?" Charming asked, laying a sympathetic hand on Neal's shoulder.

"I think so," He nodded as he took out a small bottle that contained a glittering liquid from his pocket and turned to the Blue Fairy. "So, I just pour this on the doorstep?"

"Yes. It will create a magical force that will trap him inside the building - but you may want to pour some at his shop and some at his home. We shouldn't chance his whereabouts, especially with the speed that this is descending." Blue said before shooing Neal off to do his duties. As she looked back towards Snow and Charming, a small smile graced her lips, "they're close. They're almost here."

"How much time do we have, m'lady?" Hook asked Snow as he appeared behind the group.

"They're approaching fast, so I would argue that we have at least thirty minutes before they arrive, but at most an hour before Rumple's barrier fully falls." Blue answered before Snow could even open her mouth, the woman was too confused in her own thoughts to actually make decisions, so Blue took it upon herself to take over for Snow. In the Enchanted Forest it would have been frowned upon to take over the Queen's duties, but in this land, Blue believed that everyone had an equal opportunity to save people that truly needed saving.

Hook nodded and gripped the silver attachment on his wrist as he stared off in the direction Emma and Regina would be driving. "And now we wait?" He asked with a glimmer of hope.

"And now we wait." The Blue Fairy nodded. She could barely take a deep breath before she was bombarded by another series of questions from the now present fairies. "Enough!" She screamed, instantly sending everyone around her into a deafening silence. "Enough with the questions - please just let me figure this out."

Snow and Charming huddled in a small embrace to the side of the Blue Fairy and offered her a sympathetic smile. It was going to be a difficult task, and they all knew it, but Blue focused her mind too strongly on the thought of what could go wrong - especially with good magic fighting so fiercely against the newly found strength of the dark magic. Squeezing her eyes shut and blocking out the group around her, Blue hummed a monotone tune until a specific spell came to mind, making her open wide and a light smirk appear on her face.

"I've got it." She breathed, feeling rather accomplished. "Fairies assemble - divide into three groups, the first group is up first, we're using the praesidium spell. Direct it towards the barrier. It will keep it at bay. As soon as you're beginning to feel tired, you must all use the auxilium spell, it will give you enough time to swap with the next group. Do not over use your energy. We don't know what's around the corner. I will wait on the ground and prepare for an attack. Tink, I need you with me. Regina trusts you more than she trusts any of us and she needs to remain with us, otherwise I cannot guarantee her safety."

The fairies before Blue nodded and began to depart in three separate groups, two of which remained on the ground, keeping a lookout for anything dangerous, while leaving an incredibly timid Tinkerbell standing before the Charmings, Hook and Blue. The dwarves had scurried off towards the woodland at the edge of the town line in hope of preventing any possible uprisings from sudden appearances of portal fissures.

"Thank you, Blue," Snow mused with a barely noticeable smile, but it was there.

"Don't thank me yet, my dear, Snow." The Blue Fairy said sternly as she took the pixie cut brunette's hand in her own. "One war has just begun and another is about to begin."

"This is the final battle Rumple told us about when he told us that Emma would be the saviour, isn't it?" Charming asked. There was worry in his voice and anxiety in his hold around his wife; the final battle had been something they had known about long before Emma was born, yet the realisation that it was here did nothing but stir the ever growing fear building inside him.

The Blue Fairy merely nodded and looked up towards the fairies above her as they soaked up and fought the dark magic that had began to decend. 'So far so good' Blue thought to herself, knowing that saying it aloud would only jinx whatever was to come of all of this.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, things definitely weren't going the way Neal had hoped. Casting the spell on his father's home was simple - probably because no one was actually home. The pawn shop, however, was really a trip less desired.

Neal had spent the last eleven years of his life regretting a single decision that he made because of so many selfish reasons. When August showed up with a type writer and knowledge of his past, there was nothing else he could do. He couldn't turn to Emma, he couldn't take the blonde and run away, but something deep down told him that he could leave her to serve a sentence in jail at the age of more he thought about his decision, the more he began to hate himself. Thats why he had to do this. That is why he had to defeat his father.

From the moment he arrived in London and met the Darlings, Neal knew that his father was never coming back for him. It was obvious that this was it. This was his life and his father was no longer a part of such a thing. The more time he spent with Wendy and her brothers, the more he realised and understood that he had to let go of his father, just like he had let go of him.

If Rumple truly loved him, he never would have let go, right?

The longer Neal spent away from his father, the more distant he became, until eventually, Neal no longer cared for him. He simply couldn't. There was nothing for him to love about the cowardly man that left him to fall through a portal into a world without magic. There was nothing that could reassure him that his father would return for him. And by gods, there was nothing left that could allow him to forgive the bastard for being so selfish.

That was what made his decision to fight against his father so easy. This was his own chance to save his family in the way his father was too cowardly to do himself. He had to be the better father.

Enacting the spell around his father's huge home was simple enough - from the outside it looked completely empty, and the inside was as dead as night, which made Neal all the more wry of Rumple's whereabouts. Hell, he could have been anywhere and Blue was being so ridiculously narrow minded that she only gave Neal enough magic to cover the only two spots she could think of.

As he approached the pawn shop, Neal could feel how much the magic in the air had began to grow stronger. True enough, it could be felt all over town, but the closer he came to his father's shop, the more powerful it had become - the stronger it felt as the energy began to seep through his veins. There was no doubt in his mind anymore that this was exactly the place that his father had cast the barrier curse.

"Clearly the apple doesn't really fall very far from the tree, does it, my boy?" A sudden sly voice pulled Neal directly from his thoughts.

"I'm not so sure, father," He replied before turning on his heel to face the cowardly man that would always abandon him. "For one - I am not a coward; and secondly - I will fight to protect the people that I call family."

Rumple stared at his son in silence, constantly questioning whether his son was including him in this definition of family, even if the look on Bae's face was filled with disappointment and hatred.

"How sweet of you, Bae. But I don't need protection." Rumple eventually said.

"Then it's a good job because it wasn't you that I was intending on protecting, father," Neal spat in utter disgust. "You chose not to be in my family when you let me fall through a portal at Henry's age. I had to fend for myself, where as you, on the other hand, pranced around the Enchanted Forest with that stupid giggle and annoying hand gestures pretending to be some all-mighty dark one. You do realise that everything Regina did was because of you, right? If it weren't for you, none of this would have ever happened."

"Oh, was that a little bit of regret something to do with Henry? You regret having Henry, don't you?" Rumple let out a sinister giggle as he watched his son's fury build up faster than ever before.

"Go to hell!" Neal screamed and clenched his fists as his sides as he took a step towards his father. "I do not regret Henry. Not in the slightest. What I do regret, is what I did to Emma. What you forced me to do to Emma. I loved her so much and because of you I had to leave her alone - in prison, carrying my son. She was alone all of her life and I was the first person to give her the slightest glimpse of stability in her life and because of your hunger for power, I had to leave her. I had to leave her alone with the decision to give up Henry. She was alone again for ten years and when she finally had her family back, she had to spend another two years alone. That is what I regret. She was the love of my life and you took her away."

"I had nothing to do with the Saviour's relationship with you, my boy. Clearly fate has some sort of twisted humor." Rumple offered with a sly smile. "You're never going to see them, you know. No matter how hard those colourful little flies try, your precious Saviour, your boy and the good-for-nothing Evil Queen will all be trapped outside the town and left to die. Such a pity - the true love that the two of those have would have been enough to actually redeem her of her sins."

"You can't do this."

"But I already have. The closer they come to the town line, the faster the barrier will fall and soon enough, everyone in this town will be trapped and under my control." Rumple giggled once more before imitating the step forward that his son had taken only moments before. "These people were always meant to be trapped and under control and that is the lives I shall give them. With the Saviour and her Queen running around, I couldn't possibly uphold any power."

Neal closed his eyes in defeat for a brief moment. He cursed himself for thinking that this task could have been easy. Nothing was ever easy with the dark one, even long before his father turned from the town coward to the most feared man in all the realms.

"The only power you're going to have, Crocodile, is the will power to say alive when all of this is over and Emma, Henry and Regina return home."

Rumple merely smirked at the new voice that boomed behind him.

"Captain Jones, let me guess; you're here to finish off the job you failed to complete whilst we were in New York. You should know that I have no interest in dying in the hands of a filthy pirate that took away my Mila." Rumple's eyes never left his son's nervous form yet he continued to talk to the pirate standing directly behind him. "Please, if you do believe that you can kill me, feel free to try right away."

"My pleasure," Hook snarled, plunging Charming's sword through the Dark One's back. "I do hope you like how dreamshade feels for the second time." Hook stepped closer until he spoke directly into Rumple's ear. "And this time, we have no cure."

Pulling the sword out as fast as he could, Hook let Rumple's body dropped to the floor in a weak state. Clearly he wasn't dead, but by the look of him, he wasn't barely alive either.

Letting out a long and ragged breath at the sight before him, Neal lowered his head. "Thanks for that,"

"My pleasure, Bae."

* * *

_They were home. _

Emma's grip on Regina's hand only tightened as they came closer to the famous road sign of their home town. The sight of something so familiar both excited and terrified Emma. Returning to somewhere she had called home was never something she had to do. She had said goodbye to far too many places in her life to settle on somewhere so small, hidden and positively crazy. Yet this was the only place she wanted to be. She wanted her family, her friends and Regina.

"It's going to be okay," Regina reassuringly whispered as she felt Emma's grip. "Everything is going to be okay."

Taking a deep breath at Regina's words, Emma stared further down to road towards the town before letting out an audible gasp at the sight before her.

"Regina, what the hell is that?" The blonde pointed towards the sky with the hand that wasn't intertwined with Regina's.

Noticing the black barrier that was quickly descending around Storybrooke, Regina couldn't help but press her foot on the gas a little harder. She knew exactly what it was and if she didn't move fast then they would never get home.

"Emma, this is Rumple's magic." She deadpanned as she continued to glare at the sky and race towards the town line. "He's trying to keep us out of Storybrooke. I don't know why, and I don't even know how he is still alive, but the one thing I do know, is that this is defiantly his magic."

Emma remained silent by Regina's side, giving her hand a squeeze in understanding. There was nothing she could say. There was nothing she could do. And by gods, there was nothing more that she wanted to do than to rip Rumple to pieces. He had taken enough from her in the past and there was no way in her mind that she was going to allow him to take her home from her too.

* * *

Hook and Neal carried Rumple's limp and barely alive body to the town line exactly where the Charmings and the Blue Fairy had assembled. No one knew what Hook had done and he only hoped that his decision was the right one.

"Your Majesties," Hook announced their arrival, dragging shocked looks towards himself, Neal and the dark one's body. "He's alive, but barely. The crocodile intends on trapping all of us here to gain power without Emma and Regina."

"Hook, what did you do to him?" Snow asked frantically.

"Neal was supposed to trap him! You weren't supposed to kill him! That was going to be a town decision when Emma and Regina got here." Charming added before Hook could even open his mouth.

"Mate, there was no way Neal could have trapped him there. They were in the middle of the street and the croc' was too cocky to even consider giving in." Hook dropped the half of the Dark One that he was holding and walked closer to the Charmings. "We're safer this way. There was a tiny bit of dreamshade on the end of my sword. Over time it could be enough to kill him; but right now, his body is just weak from the stab wound more than anything else."

"I can heal the wound, but I can't take away the dreamshade. He's going to die eventually." Blue said quietly, feeling sympathetic towards Neal, who was still clinging to his father. "I'm sorry Baelfire."

"He hasn't been my father for such a long time; I don't need your sympathies." Neal dropped the remaining part of his father's limp body that he was holding up and straightened himself to face the town's royalty and the head fairy. "Now what do we do?"

"Take him to Ruby and Belle at the Sheriff's Station, they'll know what to do," The Blue Fairy turned her back to Neal and Hook and stared down the road, past the sign to catch a glimpse of the black car fast approaching. "They're home."


End file.
